Backup Plan: Blood War
by DelayedInspiration
Summary: The fateful day approaches. The twins' sixteenth birthday comes quickly. Shin'en returns at full power to do battle against Kronos and his army, and in the violent aftermath, the secrets of the Blood War are revealed...
1. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 1

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 1_

 _ **Behold, the second part of my magnum opus.**_

 _ **You've all waited long enough, and so here it is.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ Percy Jackson is owned by Rick Riordan, and Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Manhattan, New York_

 _Penthouse in the Upper East Side_

 _Evening of the fourth day from the twins' sixteenth birthday_

Persephone laid alone in her room, on top of her bed. She was wearing soccer shorts and a t-shirt, her usual lounge wear, reminiscing and thinking about the past twenty months. Further down the bed was an opened envelope filled with pictures, and in her hand, the one that wasn't laying across her forehead, was one of those pictures. Her beloved cloak was hanging on the bedpost.

Looking at the cloak drew Persephone's thoughts to her time in high school. She was bullied, of course, for wearing the garb of the Akatsuki, being the subject of many pet names like _weeb_ , _weeb-girl_ , _Weebone_ —a play on the last three letters of her name—and _the_ _school weeb_. It was funny to her that they called her a weeb, yet all of them knew that her cloak came from an anime, but anyway.

She also scared people by wearing her cloak. Its long sleeves hid her entire arm, it high collar hid her lower face, and its color, that deep black, the clouds red as blood, the white pristine as a bleached bone, created an air around her that, to the ones that didn't bully her or make fun of her, made people feel threatened. In addition to being called an anime nerd, she was also called _school shooter_.

Her quiet demeanor and seemingly antisocial nature didn't help, but there were only two kinds of people for her to interact with: those who scorned her, and those who ran from her. Hard to be social in a climate like that.

Anyway, due to her silent demeanor, lack of friends, poor grades because of her dyslexia preventing her from reading and her ADHD keeping her from sitting still long enough to pay attention (the former of which got her sent down to the special room with all the other problem children for tests, and earned her more bullying for not being able to read, the latter of which got her sent out into the hallway for disrupting class, which got her a reputation as an annoying idiot) Persephone had been assigned to mandatory counseling as a preventative measure to anything "unscrupulous or unfortunate."

Bleh.

She had also been called into the principal's office multiple times to discuss her cloak, as where it didn't necessarily violate any dress code policies, as it went well past her knees, covered her shoulders, didn't expose excess amounts of skin, and was even in school colors (Goode's mascot being the Goode Raider, a black-and-red clad sharpshooter copied right from Texas Tech) it made people "uncomfortable."

However, Paul proved to be Persephone's lifeline in the school, being her shoulder to cry on when needed, her room to hang out in when she was free, and an expert over school laws. He came to her defense in the dress code episode, citing that others discomfort was not ground enough to make a student alter their wardrobe.

The principal then tried to spin a story about how the collar kept her face from being seen by the cameras, and that if something happened, they would be able to differentiate between her and some assailant, and he didn't want that to happen, and that he was only looking out for her, blah blah blah…Persephone fixed the issue by signing a paper that said she would keep her cloak unbuttoned to her collar bones at all times while on campus.

The principal hadn't liked it, at all, for the sole purpose that he wasn't getting exactly what he wanted the way he wanted it, but that was just tough.

Now, two months into the first semester, her face had always been covered by the collar. With it unbuttoned, and her demigoddess beauty exposed for all to see, she had to start beating away the boys with a stick. The single jocks tried their luck first, thinking that with their awesome bodies and status as a football player, they wouldn't be rejected.

They were. Flatly. Hands down.

Of course, even though they might have been single, the jocks still had their loyal fanbases of harpies…the human kind. Those harpies were experts of the rumor mill, and they got it circulating like something going out of style. To Persephone's memory, she had sex with ten different football players, all of which were proud to admit it, six different basketball players, all proudly owning up to it, and one of the most acne-ridden computer geeks in the school. He was scared to death of the concept.

Persephone was also pregnant right now, at the onset of her sophomore year, with the babies of seven different boys, and her cloak had been used to hide her baby bump.

Cue overdramatic eyeroll.

Of course, the teachers still had jobs to do and duties to perform and responsibilities to uphold, and Persephone, despite all the negativity around her and her bad reputation, was still a student of Goode High School, and that meant that she was as protected from bullies as anyone else was.

Whether or not the teachers liked it, they were called upon to root out the source of these rumors, and nip them.

Nip them they did.

The rumors might have weakly persisted to the current day, but the starters of the rumors were punished with varying sentences. Of course, it had the spiral effect of the punished feeling their misfortunes were directly because of Persephone, and so they sought to direct their ire, only to receive more punishment because of it, which generated more ire, which generated more desire for venting, and then authorities were brought in to investigate a leak.

A leak that said potential murder.

Apparently, in the group of girls trying to destroy Persephone on a social level, one of them had grown sick of it, correctly feeling that planning a humiliation so great it could potentially kill someone, was the utmost kind of wrong, and so she snitched. The fucking FBI showed up with warrants for arrests, and arrests there were.

All the girls besides the snitch, who remained anonymous as per her request, were in psychiatric wards.

The school cracked down harder still.

All the athletes who had "sex" with Persephone were brought in and grilled, and when the obvious finally spilled from them, they were made to sign confessions of their lie. The school was even going to hold an assembly in which all these boys would stand before the student body and tell the truth, publicly humiliating themselves, and their colleges would be contacted, scholarships revoked and admittance declined, but Persephone had stepped in at that point, her compassion taking hold.

Through her alone, the only thing boys had to do was sign their confessions, confessions that were then sealed, and the matter dropped. The boys were shocked of course, their cores touched. Persephone brought them all into the conference office and shut the door, and told them she was tired of all the lies and unneeded strife, and that she just wanted to enjoy high school.

That seemed enough to cow them all, but to make sure they stopped in their advances, Persephone came out to them. To prove her claim, she showed them her favorite picture of her Annabeth: them at the end of a pier, the beautiful ocean sparkling behind them, smiling and touching cheeks.

The jocks were floored, floored that the hottest girl in school (news to Persephone) was actually gay—and taken, too. She had been scared then, fearing that she had just made a huge mistake, but something changed in those young men that day.

Not a word was said about the nightmare, or her being gay. In fact, almost nothing was said at all. The rumors all but stopped, though a few still persisted, which was why she was apparently pregnant and in labor, and when she passed in the halls, the sneers were less frequent and some people even said a passing "hey."

That was how everything prior to Spring Break ended.

It was strange. Something that big, teen girls plotting murder, a contingent of hopeful athletes being made to sign oaths, FBI involvement, bullying to that large a scale…it should've garnered mass media attention, and Persephone should've been all over the news again, but it didn't happen. As far as America was concerned, it had never happened.

Like some higher power was keeping it quiet.

Sally, of course, had been terrifyingly livid throughout the whole ordeal, performing her motherly duties well, but she was calmed when the whole thing had blown over. Persephone was just glad that her little brother hadn't been present for any of this, elsewise there would've been bodies.

Annabeth had somehow caught wind of the turmoil, and she transferred from her high school in California all the way to Manhattan as Spring Break ended. The action gave Persephone the push she needed to get through finals and graduate from a freshman to a sophomore, though neither girl _dared_ come out to the student body.

The last thing either of them needed or wanted was for some extremist to try and kill them for not being straight.

Funny enough, though, when rumors of them being gay did start to pop up, they died off fairly quickly. Something about the school's top athletes not believing for a second that girls that hot wouldn't want to be with a stud of a man.

Whenever Persephone saw one of those top athletes, she made sure to give him a nod.

When summer came, Annabeth had flown back to California to spend some time with her dad, as Frederick was still trying to get used to the fact that his son had been turned into a girl and wanted to stay that way. The stepmother didn't see what the problem was, as she had always thought Annabeth had been a girl, as did the little boys.

Annabeth was using the Mist on them to avoid more strife than what there already was.

It was funny, really, the Mist. Persephone knew how to use it now, having asked Chiron for lessons, lessons that the centaur provided. If she had wanted, Persephone could've snapped her fingers and made all of the bullying vanish, all of the rumors disappear, all of her mortal enemies into her best friends…but she didn't. It didn't sit well with her, bending someone's will like that, playing with people's heads like that.

Even with the promise of ease and friendship, Persephone hadn't used the Mist, something that Annabeth still wanted to debate with her.

A knock at Persephone's door grounded the girl back to reality, and she practically flew to hide the envelope with the pictures, and the picture in her hand.

"Just a minute!" she called, buying time.

The door opened anyway, just as Persephone hid the envelope under her pillow. Her breathing was fast and her face was red, and she was already trying to think of a lie to get her mom to leave, but all her worry was for not.

The grinning face of a California girl stood in Persephone's doorway.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth greeted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So, what'cha hiding there?"

Persephone flushed like a cherry as she was both caught, and as Annabeth slid on top of her, straddling her. She reached around her girlfriend's head, under her pillow, and pulled out the envelope, the one loose photo on top. Annabeth whistled appreciatively.

"I am _sexy_."

As demigods could not use cellphones, they could not send text messages to each other, nor could they send photos. Not the new way, anyway. No, if demigods wanted to send pictures across distances, they had to have the film processed and mailed away. That's exactly what Annabeth did. She went above and beyond, dropping ten bucks to get the film handled, and another ten bucks for a book of stamps, and a hundred bucks for the camera…just to send nudes.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Annabeth went through a very convoluted, very costly process to send her girlfriend lewd photos of herself. Of course, she used the Mist to keep the film processor from seeing anything they weren't supposed to.

Now, just why would Annabeth do such a thing? Well…

 _Early June_

"I want to have sex with you," the blonde said seriously.

Persephone's face glowed scarlet. "E-Excuse me?"

"I want. To have sex. With you."

The sea princess squeaked. "W-We're a little y-young for t-that, a-aren't we…?"

"Not really," Annabeth shrugged casually. "Millions of teens are having sex before they're eighteen."

"That doesn't mean we're going to!"

"Sure, it does. Besides, don't act like you've never wanted to."

"I haven't!"

Annabeth inspected her nails. "Swear that on the Styx."

Persephone hesitated.

"Thought so," Annabeth said smugly. "Oh, relax. I wasn't talking about right now."

The daughter of Poseidon's tension visibly deflated. "You weren't?"

"Of course not. Do you have any idea what you like and don't like? Any idea of how to do it?"

"I-I didn't think two girls could h-have s-s-s-se…se-se…seeee…"

"Sex?" Annabeth supplied.

"Y-Yeah…that…" Persephone bowed her head to where her hair hid most of her vermillion visage.

"Of course two girls can have sex—and I know that because I've done my research, so don't panic."

"Research?"

"PornHub."

Persephone turned so red that steam began to slowly drift from her head.

"You are such a cinnamon roll, Seaweed Brain."

"Don't call me that," she huffed.

"Well, you are. _Anyway_ ," Annabeth enunciated to cut off Persephone's protest, "I'll be leaving for California tomorrow, and I'll send you some pictures to experiment with?"

"…what am I going to be doing with pictures?" Seph asked suspiciously yet vacantly.

"Masturbating to them, duh."

And here's where Persephone truly showed how much of a cinnamon roll she was. "Masturbating…? Is that…is that…isn't that, like, something Artemis uses to hunt things…?"

Annabeth stared blankly at her girlfriend for the longest time, trying to figure out how she came to that conclusion, before it clicked in her own head. Masturbate. Master bait. Like a bait that was the master of all baits.

"No, Seph. Masturbating is when you use a sex toy, your own fingers, or a surface to stimulate your genitals until you orgasm."

"O-Oh…don't…don't call it that…"

"Don't call what that?"

"The M-word…please, don't call it that…I don't like it. It sounds gross."

Annabeth then saw an opportunity to have a little bit of harmless fun. "Okay. We'll call it 'fingering yourself.'"

"No!" Seph squeaked.

"Persephone's happy time," Annabeth grinned.

"Not that either!"

"Persephone's sex education."

"Ah! No!"

"Finger-lickin' good times!"

Persephone fell onto her side, hiding her face behind her hands.

Annabeth's grin became more lucid. "We'll just say your private time, then. How about that?"

A hand moved just a little, and an innocent little green eye looked into Annabeth's grey one. Persephone nodded once, then hid her face again. Her breathing evened out, and the daughter of Athena realized that her girlfriend had fallen asleep.

' _She's cute when she sleeps…'_

Annabeth crawled onto the bed, being gentle not to wake the sleeping princess, and got behind her, becoming the big spoon for the afternoon.

…

True to her word, Annabeth sent nude photos of herself to Persephone not even a week later, with the full expectation that Seph would go through the photos, and masturbate to the ones she liked, discovering pleasures, discovering pleasing things. That way, when they next met before Persephone's sixteenth birthday, she would be ready for some quality "fun time."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So?" Annabeth grinned at the squirming princess beneath her. "Which ones were your favorite?"

And that's when the intuitive daughter of Athena noticed something was very, very wrong. Persephone didn't flush, or sputter, or brighten and spill her dirty secrets. Her eyes lost their luster, her mouth set into a nervous frown, and the muscles in her face all settled into a look of apprehension, but not apprehension in saying something disappointing, but something else…

"I…I…I need to-"

Annabeth pinned the girl to the bed. "Persephone Jackson, I swear on the River Styx that if you say 'I need to poop,' I will physically hold you here until you _do_ poop in your pants."

The sea princess gasped, but Annabeth's hard grey eyes remained unyielding. Realizing this was a losing battle, Persephone told the truth.

"I _tried_ ," she whispered. "I tried so hard. I looked at all of them…I dropped my pants and underwear, and I _tried_ doing what you said…rub it a little, make it w-wet, and then insert, but…"

Persephone looked at Annabeth with pained eyes, and Annabeth got up, pulling Persephone up with her until they were both sitting on the bed.

"What's been going on, Persephone?"

"…"

The blonde blinked. "Sorry? I didn't catch that."

Persephone had been so quiet in her answer that Annabeth, a half-blood with better hearing than a human, a half-blood sitting less than two feet away, couldn't hear it.

"…Aphrodite," she said louder, but barely above a whisper.

Annabeth stared. Of course, she remembered the desert, what the late Love Goddess had done, and how Persephone had withdrawn deep into herself, confiding only in her brother for a long time before opening up. However, Annabeth been of the mind that such a thing was behind them now, just a bad memory. Apparently not.

"Every time I tried…I saw Percy. I _felt_ him…inside, outside…" Persephone looked at Annabeth, suddenly hysterical. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THAT'S LIKE!? TRYING TO MASTURBATE SO YOU AND YOUR GIRLFRIEND CAN HAVE SEX, ONLY TO HAVE THE STUPID LOVE GODDESS' CURSE MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR LITTLE BROTHER HAS HIS THING IN YOUR BUTT!?"

Annabeth didn't know what to say to that, other than a simple "no," so she grabbed Persephone, pulling her into a hug. She didn't break down into sobs like Annabeth thought, nor did she bring her own arms around Annabeth. "We'll get through it," the blonde offered. "We've gotten through a lot worse."

"Yeah, because sexual PTSD is just like fighting the god of war or sailing through the Sea of Monsters or holding the sky."

Annabeth's mouth tightened. She didn't have a response, so she tried to move forward with the plan she had made all the way back at the end of Spring Break.

"Let's try it right now," she said.

"Try what?" Persephone pulled back.

"Sex," Annabeth supplied. "You're not going to get over your PTSD by not facing it."

Persephone just stared, and the blonde leaned in to get things started with a kiss. The sea princess pushed her away, but Annabeth didn't give up, and it turned into a struggle, Persephone keeping her girlfriend from getting into her pants. The struggle got heated, with the daughter of Athena forcing her upper body down, and the daughter of Poseidon locking her arms, her superior strength keeping the blonde away, until Annabeth snaked her arms between Persephone's and forced them apart.

Gravity took hold, and Annabeth's lips crashed down onto Persephone's, and she began to…almost _hungrily_ , almost _desperately_ …kiss Persephone, like she was afraid the sea princess would disappear forever.

Not at all liking this, Persephone used her strength, superior to both humans and regular demigods, and literally throw Annabeth across her room. Sally and Paul must have left for their date already, because the loud bang of the blonde's body against the wall didn't make anyone come running up the stairs to her room and bust down her door in a frantic game of twenty questions.

Persephone wiped the saliva from her mouth and glared. "What the hell!?"

Annabeth staggered to her feet, her back literally damaged. Spinal bruising most likely. "You threw me!"

"You were raping my mouth! While we're at it, what it is _with_ you!? Sending these!?" she brandished a handful of photos. "That's not _like_ you! So what the hell is with you suddenly, pervert!?"

Annabeth grimaced, trying to think of a lie to get her out of this.

"Well!?"

The gears continued to grind, trying to come up with something.

" _Well!?_ "

Sweat broke out across Annabeth's forehead as her eyes darted about.

This time she spoke in Ancient Greek, her eyes flashing bright green. **"Well?"** her voice thundered.

And Annabeth spilled her painful truth. "Because I'm afraid!"

Silence pervaded for two seconds before she continued. "I'm afraid. There, I said it. Me, the smartest child of Athena of the current age is afraid."

Seph blinked, her anger evaporated. "Afraid of what?"

Annabeth scowled at the ground, intent on not saying. But, she had already that much, so she might as well go all the way.

"I'm afraid of you _dying_ , Persephone. I'm afraid you're going to die before I can give you everything I am. Your sixteenth birthday is coming up, the day you're supposed to make that choice that'll kill you, and-and-and…I can't bear the thought of living another day without knowing that I gave you the greatest gift that's within my power to give you."

Persephone, being Persephone, interpreted that as thus: "So…you're in such a hurry to get your hands down my pants…because you think I'm going to die in four days…? Annabeth, that is the stupidest thing you've ever done."

Persephone laughed, a joyous, melodious tinkling bell-like sound that had no hints of derision in it. It was so pure and innocent that Annabeth smiled, uneasily, but it was a smile.

"I don't think your body and making love to me is the greatest gift you can give me, but since you're thinking with your heart on that one, I'm not going to argue with you, but I will say this: I'm not going to die on my birthday."

Annabeth turned skeptical. "What makes you so sure?"

Persephone smiled, so calmly and confidently it raised the blonde's spirits. "Percy's coming, and there's no way he's gonna let me die."

Annabeth's spirits promptly died. A shadow crossed her face, and Persephone saw it. "Alright, out with it. We're having this much of a heart to heart, you might as well tell me what your problem with my little brother is."

And Annabeth came out with it. " _My_ problem? _My_ problem is the same as everyone's problem with him: he's a _monster_. You saw all the things he did, blowing up that town, slaughtering those prisoners and those guards, killing that kid, not to mention everything he did here, destroying Mt. Diablo, making all of us hostages—" she brandished her wrist, the one where Shin'en's Sealing Jutsu was faintly visible— "and what he did to Drew, basically sewing her mouth to a dildo."

"Don't act like you cared what happened to Drew."

"They had to get Hecate to undo whatever thing he did."

"And?"

"And-" Annabeth really didn't have an argument. "I didn't like Drew, no one really did, but what happened to her was uncalled for. She almost starved to death, and as much as no one liked her, no one wanted her to die."

"Fair enough. Any other arguments?"

"He's killed _hundreds_ of people."

"So, that's why he's a monster? He's killed people?"

"Yes!" Annabeth almost shouted, not comprehending why Persephone wasn't seeing what the same thing she was.

The daughter of Poseidon looked at the blonde. "Chiron taught us that…that human lives are precious and shouldn't be wasted, that humans should be forgiven for their actions, and protected from the mythological threat at all costs…" Persephone trailed off, still sitting on her bed, Annabeth still nursing the bruises on her back.

"Did I ever tell you about my stepdad?" the sea princess asked suddenly.

Annabeth glanced off to the side and looked back at Persephone, the body-language equivalent of 'uh, yeah, stupid.'

"I've met Paul, yes."

"No, no…my other stepdad, Gabe Ugliano?"

"Gabe Ugliano…Smelly Gabe? _That_ Gabe?"

"Yeah, that Gabe, the asshole jerk who, while he never beat me or my mom, and he never touched us, was still a bastard."

"Um, besides that…no, you don't talk about him much."

"Then it goes without saying that I never told you how his story ended….Annabeth, you call my brother a monster because of the blood on his hands, and if that's what your reasoning is…" Persephone smiled sadly, and where Annabeth was already piecing it together, she still remained quiet for what was coming.

"We got back from the Shinobi World, and everyone wanted to kill my brother, which made me all moody as I'm sure you remember. I was _bad_ , Annabeth. I was going to kill Clarisse that day, I really was, and I wouldn't have cared if I did. Anyway, Mom picked me up, and I learned Gabe was still around. Not only that, I learned that he had been hitting my mom. So, with my mindset what it was, I decided it was time for Gabe to go."

Annabeth gasped. "No…you didn't…"

Persephone continued to smile that melancholy smile. "He was trying to have sex with Mom that night, and it made what I did easier, both mentally and physically. I focused my powers on the racing water in his body, using my hatred and my anger to give myself an edge, and—" she shrugged— "I killed him. Autopsy ruled it as heart attack. Too much activity for his weight."

Annabeth stared at the sea princess in shock.

"So, whenever you call my brother a monster because he's a killer, just remember that I'm a monster too."

The blonde continued to stare, open mouth trembling. Everything Annabeth knew as right, everything she had been taught by Chiron, flipped on its head by the confession of the most beautiful girl on the planet…her girl. Her girlfriend. Her Persephone.

A murderer.

Just like her brother.

"I-It can't be," Annabeth whispered. "It can't…you're not _like_ him."

"I was. You noticed the change in me after that dream, where he told me to return to the light. So I returned, but I still have my shadow behind me."

Annabeth just stared, mind blank as fresh canvas.

And Persephone smiled sadly still. "I guess this means we're not together anymore, huh? Since I'm everything my brother is, and you hate my brother. It's okay, I guess. It was bound to happen. Me, the daughter of Poseidon, being gay with the daughter of Athena; one of our parents would have broken us up either way. Still, it was fun while it lasted. You are, and always will be, my first love. Thank you for all the great memories, Annabeth Chase."

Persephone slid off her bed, and headed for her door. She had a mission tonight, with Beckendorf, to plant a bomb on a boat. Before she reached the threshold to the hallway, she was grabbed from behind and the next thing she knew was that her lips were being taken in the most loving manner she could ever remember.

Annabeth pulled back, grey eyes swimming with tears. "You're not getting rid of me that easily, Seaweed Brain."

"Oh, thank the gods," Persephone sighed in relief. "Whew, for a minute there I thought I had gone overboard and _actually_ pushed you away for real."

"Nope," Annabeth grinned. "Still here, and always will be. Where were you going anyway?"

"Hook up with Beckendorf and go blow up the _Princess Andromeda_."

"Oh, I thought you were going to go do some— _wait, WHAT!?_ "

"I didn't tell you because I didn't think you were going to be here so soon."

Annabeth wanted to argue, desperately, but something made her hold her tongue, probably the realization that there was nothing she could say or do to stop Persephone from going off with Beckendorf, and asking what their plan was would probably bring tears to her eyes at how stupid it was. So, Annabeth just gave Seph another kiss and said, "Good luck. I'll be at Camp Half-Blood, prepping the army."

The sea princess nodded. "I love you."

"I know."

Persephone stuck her tongue out, and then vanished in a swirl of vapor, leaving Annabeth slack-jawed in the bedroom.

"Since when can you do that!?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Shinobi World_

In a village of metal buildings that scraped against the sky, rain poured with endless fervor as the heavens mourned for the future. The tallest building of this crying city bore strange sculptures: demonic faces with mouths opened, tongues extended. The faces were attached to the tops of building, and sitting in the tongue of the ugliest, meanest demonic visage, was a young man in a black cloak with red clouds.

His face was hidden in shadow, but his red eyes blazed brightly in the gloom. He uttered two words, and then he vanished with the flash of lightning.

" _It's time_."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well, the mission had not gone as planned, with Persephone and Beckendorf ending up captured, and the explosive Greek fire questionably armed. Brought before the Titan King, both demigods were caught in the grasp of mixed emotions.

It was Luke.

But it was Kronos.

Those golden eyes glittered.

"Ah, granddaughter, and great-grandson. I've been expecting you for weeks now, though this is certainly not the welcome I had planned. You must forgive me, Persephone, but I imagined your sweet sixteen to be grander than this…and to take place four days from now. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men, as they say. Now," Kronos lost his mirth, becoming serious, "usually I would show you the error of my children's ways and attempt to convince you to join my side, using oaths on the Styx to prove the sincerity of my promises, but neither of you are the ones I wish to discuss this with.

"I'll ask only once," the Titan's eyes glowed with a soft undertone as he stared deep into Persephone's soul, "where. Is. Your brother?"

"Heck if I know. And if I did know, I wouldn't tell you."

"If you don't know, then that means he hasn't contacted you, and if he hasn't contacted you, then that means he hasn't arrived yet. Pity. I wanted to celebrate my grandtwins' birthdays at the same time. Looks like I'll just have to settle with you."

Kronos hefted his scythe, seemingly about to kill both Persephone and Charles in a single swing, but Ethan Nakamura pointed.

"Sir! The fog!"

All eyes turned to the fog, and suddenly did silence claim the world. The fog was eerie, moving fast, moving _against_ the wind, and its light grey color, like frostbite, stood out against the black of the night sky. The fog rolled over the _Princess Andromeda_ , and suddenly did it become cold. Port windows froze over and shattered one by one. The railing became covered in a layer of ice, making any who were touching it recoil as if burned, or rapidly move away to avoid such pain. Weapons, whether of wood or metal, frosted, making all hands lose their arms, aside from Kronos. Visibility was altered, entities standing at any more than fifteen feet away becoming indistinct blurs. Breathe steamed against the air, and there was much shivering in this sudden cold.

Against it all, however, Persephone was grinning, and a single tear rolled down her cheek. _'He's here_. _'_

In the silence of the fog, the flicking open of a cigarette lighter and the minute hiss of its flame were like the roaring of a cannon and explosion of a missile. Everyone turned to the source of the sound, and they saw a young man shrouded in gloom, a small bit of his face illuminated by the flame of his cigarette, his eyes glowing like quasars from Hell.

"Hey, Seph," Shin'en said. "Happy birthday."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I feel really excited about this.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	2. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 2

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 2_

 _ **We are off to an amazing start, with over 30 Reviews, over 60 Favs, and over 60 Follows, with many more to come, since, you know,**_ **Backup Plan** _ **had over 700 Favs and over 680 Follows. I don't think all of those people still follow, for whatever reason, but I know lots of you still do.**_

 _ **I honestly want to perform a social experiment as to why so many follow to the end, and then when the sequel comes, they all don't come at once. Anyway, onwards!**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Beckendorf was glad he hadn't eaten or drank anything in the past few hours, because anything in him would currently be out of him. The presence of _him_ inspired terror the likes of which the son of Hephaestus didn't think was possible, which was truly saying something, because he was standing before the Titan King himself.

Persephone wanted to rip free of this monster's grasp and squeeze her brother in a hug so tight his bones would crack, and then she wanted to never let go because he would undoubtedly leave again.

The monsters were terrified out of their wits, their fear locking their bodies in place, keeping them from moving, or doing anything besides stare with trembling eyes and mouths. The enemy half-bloods fared no better.

"Grandson," Kronos greeted amicably.

"Grandfather," Shin'en inclined his head.

"I apologize for not having everyone here. I had to send some off to the engine room to look for explosives that could be very annoying."

"You mean these?" Casually, the dark child held up vials of Greek Fire rigged to detonators. "Yes, I can see why such things would be bad for a ship."

Beckendorf and Persephone stared in mute shock, and Kronos just stared. Those featureless red eyes continued to softly glow in low light of the foggy night.

"I believe you wanted to have words with me, yes?"

"Indeed, I did." Kronos opened his mouth to launch into his persuasive spiel, but Shin'en interrupted.

"Stop. I already know what you're going to say." The red eyes glowed a bit brighter, the heat of the cigarette seemingly getting hotter. "In your children's laziness, they've allowed this world to fall into pathetic disorder. Wars plague the planet, pollution chokes nature, the humans are at each other's throats over every issue conceivable, like gay rights, women's rights, equality, taxation, government, gun control, etc., but back when you were king of the world, these issues didn't exist, and should you become king again, the issues of today would dissolve under your rule. Granted, the humans would basically be slaves, entertainment, and food, but that's the kicker, isn't it?"

From the illumination of the cigarette, they could see his mouth curl slightly upward.

"Under the Titans, men and women would all be equal, just like the women want. Equal to dirt, yes, but equal nonetheless. Gays and transgenders would no longer have to worry about being persecuted for their lifestyle choices, because their lifestyle would be the same as everyone else's: face down, ass up, and pray it's over quickly and you can walk again tomorrow. Blacks would no longer have to feel like they're being discriminated against, and environmentalists would no longer be worried about the trees, because the trees would no longer be threatened. Mankind would no longer have to worry about crime and poverty, nor hunger or corruption. Under the rule of the Titans, it would be a new Golden Age in which mankind gets everything it wants: equality and peace, at the expense of everything they have…but, it's the same old, same old. Be careful what you wish for, and all that."

"So, you agree with me, then?" Kronos asked, though there was no tinge of hopefulness in his voice, like he was excited that he was going to have Shin'en on his side. Instead, he sounded jaded, like this what he expected and he was tired of being right all the time.

"Of course," Shin'en said strongly, almost passionately.

Beckendorf's heart sank, and Persephone gasped. "Percy!" she chided.

"It's 2009," continued the Abyss. "In ten years, it will be much worse, and ten years after that, even more so, and maybe in a hundred years, maybe less, maybe more, it'll be utter chaos, the dystopian future depicted in video games and books and movies will be become a reality as opinions become so heated that this fragile world you live in will be engulfed in fire. There are only two ways to bring peace to the people of the world, and it's not through love and friendship…"

"And what be those ways?" For a reason that could not be viably explained, the Titan King began to feel…dread? Foreboding? He felt like he was about to hear something so terrible it would shake even him.

Shin'en rose to his feet, his cigarette almost burned out.

"The first way is your way. Enslave them all, subject them all. Such an action would bring an end to their modern bitching…but where one problem ends, another problem begins. Now instead of worrying about what your _pronouns_ are, or worrying about _misgendering_ someone, you're going to have to worry about being thrown into a pit and told to kill each other. You're going to have to worry about being dragged off to be used as a sex toy, or a chew toy for a monster, or being cut up and served as dinner. In exchange for your petty problems being ended, you now all have very real concerns.

"However, peace is still not present. Some dumbass will see fit to make the observation that you're treating the white people better than the black, the men better than the women. Granted, that person will be soon killed and all likeminded individuals with them, but still. They will disrupt the peace, and nevermind the monstrous number of rebellions that will rise and fall. The human spirit is rather difficult to tame, after all, arguably impossible. To summarize, your method, Kronos, while it has its merit, will ultimately fail spectacularly."

"And the other way?" asked the Titan King.

The cigarette burned out, and suddenly it got even colder aboard the _Princess Andromeda_. Without the tiny flame, Shin'en's glowed all the brighter.

"The other way is my way. The only true way to bring about peace everlasting to the human race…is to completely _wipe it out_."

Kronos' eyes widened, Beckendorf was horrified, monsters gasped and shifted, demigods shared disturbed and scared looks, and Persephone stared at her brother, and she realized something: he was not the same as he was two years ago. She couldn't see his face, but the way he stood, the way he spoke, so full of frigid absolution, cold firmness; he spoke with experience, knowing what he said to be the hard, icy truth.

At least, in his mind that was the truth.

Persephone's heart constricted as she thought of what further nightmares he had been subject to, what new horrors he had seen to make his mind _this_ dark. Compared to that line of thinking, _genocide_ to bring peace, Percy had been sunshine and rainbows two years ago.

Kronos stared at his grandson, not necessarily in horror, but definitely unease, and this was a being who had eaten his own children. See, the Titans, while not benevolent beings, never went out of their way to cause undo harm, despite what the gods would say. They treated the humans they ruled with fairness, not kindness, but they were fair, and not once did they ever entertain the idea of killing _all_ humans.

They needed them, in a way. They needed their belief, their worship, to not fade and enter the void. They also needed the humans to stay in power, loathe as they would admit it, because their prayers served as fuel, a concept that applied to the gods as well. Only the Primordials could live without humans.

As such, what Shin'en had just said, kill _all_ of them, was…blasphemy.

Even in the Crooked One's crooked head, the genocide of the human race made his stomach turn, if only slightly.

"You're unbalanced, Kronos," Shin'en observed. "Does my observation startle you?"

"It's madness even by my standards."

"You ate your own children, but we can debate the merits of that choice at a later time. I believe that's enough philosophy for the day, however. Besides, it's not like we came here to argue morals…we came here to fight."

Kronos brandished his scythe in time to block the black rod of metal that was aimed to cut him half. The force behind the overhead blow made the Titan's feet sink in the wood of the deck, and the fog to scatter like the soundwave of a nuclear explosion. The shockwave knocked everyone off their feet, and caused several things to break.

The twins briefly caught each other's eye, only for an instant, but it was enough. Persephone, free from the Laistrygonian's grip, grabbed what was left of Beckendorf's tattered shirt, and hauled both of them over the frosted railing to the cold waters below.

Shin'en vanished and Kronos twirled his scythe, narrowly blocking.

The repetition game began, with the Abyss rapidly popping up and disappearing, and Kronos on the fringes of blocking. The scythe shaft met the black staff three times a second, showering the deck with sparks and splintering the wood. With a grimace, the Titan invoked his divine authority over time, slowing it as much as he thought was necessary to achieve victory in this brief spat. He saw Shin'en smirk as a golden aura engulfed a twenty-foot radius, and the half-blood was indeed slowed down…and then he sped up to a speed so great that Kronos lost track of him and was tormented by several hard whaps to almost every part of his body.

With a final swing, Shin'en hit his grandfather square in the nose, sending him skidding across the deck, his flipflops tearing deep gouges in the wood.

Kronos halted himself with a scowl, a thin line of _ichor_ dripping from his nostril. Shin'en stood tall and still, cloak hiding his body, sleeves shielding his arms. His red eyes shined brightly like stars of blood, and his black staff, the sheath and hilt of his sword, was held tightly in his left hand.

"Impressive, boy. You are much stronger than what are latest report indicates."

Shin'en didn't say anything.

"However," Kronos continued, "I find myself not worried, but exhilarated." He opened his hand and revealed a red stone, the same kind of stone that Atlas had brandished before the fight became interesting two years ago.

The boat suddenly rocked violently, making Kronos stagger, but he kept a hold on the stone. He glared at Shin'en, who he knew was smirking.

"We'll save this battle for another day." The Abyss brought his right hand up to his face, pointer and middle finger extended up, the other three curled. "Boom."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Persephone had managed to get herself and Beckendorf all the way back to the beach in the time Shin'en and Kronos fought. They just hit the sand when they heard the distance eruption of metal, fiber glass, and wood. Along the horizon, they saw the fireball, and they both knew that Shin'en had done something.

"He didn't use the Greek Fire," Beckendorf said distantly, still in shock.

"No," Persephone said. "If I had to guess, he used explosive notes. Come on, we have to get to Camp. An explosion like that won't stop Kronos. His army will be sieging Olympus come noon tomorrow, and we've got to set up defenses."

Beckendorf looked at the sea princess, trying to figure out what happened to the happy little ball of socially awkward sunshine that she used to be. Before him stood a young woman at the precipice of becoming an adult, and it made him feel old.

Persephone saw how she was being looked at, and flushed. "Quit looking at me like that! It makes me feel like a snail is crawling down my back to my butt!"

Then again, perhaps not so close to being an adult as he thought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With the _Princess Andromeda_ just a bunch of itty pieces across the ocean's surface, and Kronos having teleported himself and his personnel away just in time to escape the explosion, Shin'en was left with two options: go to shore and take charge, or swim down to the heart of the Atlantic, and quell the battling armies about Atlantis.

Considering Typhon was on his way and the Olympians were short two gods, the war god in particular, perhaps the sea god would be needed in the coming conflicts. Nodding his head at that line of thinking, Shin'en dove and turned into particles of water. He then used his divine connection to the sea to transcend space and time, covering several hundred miles of distance in a literal second. He coalesced right inside Poseidon's throne room, right in the middle of a war council apparently, because Triton, Amphitrite, Delphin, and Poseidon were all there, along with some guardsmen who immediately brandished weapons at the sudden intruder that was the next best thing since Jesus.

Shin'en blew air out of his nose in a slow manner, and with a blink, the weapons of the guards were all sliced apart. The commotion drew attention from the divinities, and reactions varied between surprise and abject terror.

The Abyss strode forward. "Poseidon, you look like hammered shit."

The sea god blubbered a little, shocked that this was actually happening, but he found his voice. "My appearance is a reflection of my kingdom at the current time."

"Then why aren't a trash-covered toxic dump?"

"What?"

"Pollution, my lord," Delphin coughed. "He is referring to pollution."

"Ah."

Shin'en overlooked the magical battle map. "You are being overrun," he observed.

"Our enemies are numerous," Poseidon said. "Oceanus has enlisted the aid of Phorcys, Aigaios, Keto, and many ancient monsters, on top of his army of telekhines. We've kept them at bay for a month now, but they're starting to break through our lines."

"They're emboldened by the taste of victory. The eighteenth is approaching, and they're all convinced that Kronos will destroy Olympus on that day, the day of prophecy." All eyes turned to Shin'en, all of them glinting with mistrust and suspicion. "If I wanted to destroy that floating rock, I would've done so already."

"Forgive us, if we're not convinced of your sincerity," Triton said.

"Not once have I told lie whenever in this world of yours. If anything, out of everyone in this room, I'm the most trustworthy."

"How do you figure?"

"Because I haven't had thousands of years to lie, Triton."

The godly son of Poseidon bristled, but Amphitrite was the one to intervene. "Boys, enough!" Her son sneered but kept his quiet, where Shin'en just stared at the person who was, for all intents and purposes, his stepmother. Amphitrite was aware of the icy gaze, and was uncomfortable, but she hid it well and continued, "There is a battle being waged around us, and we do not have the time to bicker and squabble. Now, Delphin, reroute the Sixteenth to back up the Fourth. That flank is lost and it's all we can do to not lose another."

The dolphin god nodded his dolphin head, and went to swim away to perform his allocated task, but Shin'en…was Shin'en.

"Belay that."

And suddenly it got so much tenser in Poseidon's throne room.

Delphin looked positively lost, as Shin'en, while illegitimate, was still a child of the sea god, and therefore had authority here, but it was Amphitrite who gave the order, and so Delphin froze in place as his superiors hashed out the drama.

"What'd you just say?" Triton snarled. "Delphin, belay that belay that and get to work."

"Belay," Shin'en said loudly, and Delphin froze again.

"Did you just-"

"Belay."

"Stop th-"

"Belay!

"I'm trying t-"

"Belay!

Every time Triton opened his mouth, Shin'en instantly cut him off with a hard 'belay!' until the Abyss finally rounded on his half-brother. "Shut it!" Then he rounded on Delphin, "Have all the civilians been evacuated to shelters?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Then pull every soldier back into the city and get every magician and spellcaster you have setting up barriers and shields around the area. You're going to need all the protection you can get for what's coming next."

Delphin swam away before anything else happened, and while he had no idea what good pulling the army back was going to accomplish, he just knew that Shin'en was scary, and men were dying in droves.

Triton's teeth grinded together. "What are you doing!? Pulling the army back into the city will allow the enemy to spill into the streets, causing more damage and threatening innocents!"

"Then you better get started on the shields, Triton."

Shin'en turned away to go do his thing, but his arm was grabbed by the minor sea god. "And what are you about to do?"

"Sever your arm."

Triton pulled away, but his question lingered.

"I'm about to singlehandedly wipe out the enemy force and hand you victory."

Several eyes widened.

"Madness!" Triton exclaimed. "There are thousands of monsters, old ones, powerful ones, and no less than four Titans! And it'd be just _you_!"

"I agree," Shin'en said. "I'm still trying to figure why the enemy hasn't fled yet."

Triton blinked, but then he scowled. "I cannot, in good conscience, let you do that. Not because I care for you, but because it would devastate Persephone if she found out I let you get hurt like this."

"And why does her concern resonate with you, Triton?" Shin'en's eyes bored into his half-brother's soul, searching for the answer, and he found it. "You've _bonded_ with her."

"I took her surfing at Hawai'i for her fifteenth birthday. It was an icebreaker between us, an attempt at moving past the animosity fostered between me and my father's illegitimate children. It made her happy that day, and I've taken her on vacations every now and then since."

Shin'en blinked once. "Thank you."

On the inside, he felt only the teeniest bit jealous…the _teeniest_ bit.

He turned away and made for the battlefield, but was stopped yet again. "Didn't you hear me? I'm not letting you go and do that!"

Shin'en turned, Sharingan active this time. The red eye met Triton's, and the Mist spun around the god, weaving him into a state of delirium. He promptly started to float in place. Before anything else happened, Shin'en dispersed into water particles, and appeared on the front.

Right in front of Delphin. The minor god didn't appear surprised, but, after living for thousands of years, Shin'en supposed you got used to things randomly popping up in front of you.

"The army has been pulled back, sir. The magicians are setting up shields and barriers as we speak. The enemy ceased their attack upon our retreat, but I can feel them advancing."

"As can I. Find shelter and enjoy the show. I don't intend to hold back."

Delphin didn't know what that meant, but he did as commanded, and got behind the barrier.

Back in the throne room, Poseidon slapped Triton across his slack-jawed face, and it was enough to dispel the Mist around his head. Triton shook a little, as if cold, and his eyes regained focus. He realized Shin'en wasn't present, and scowled.

"That headstrong _ass_."

Amphitrite glowered at Poseidon. "He takes after his father."

The sea god chuckled sheepishly.

Back on the front lines, Shin'en's red eyes stared over the battlefield. The seafloor, an endless expanse of sand and the odd rock poking up from the ground. The water was dark and cold, with a deep trench and a sharp drop in the far distance. Also in the distance, approaching dots were steadily getting larger.

In spite of himself, Shin'en grinned. It was a dark, savage smile that promised the enjoyment of impending carnage. It was the kind of smile that he wore on his face when he lost his mind and nearly destroyed the Leaf. It was the same smile when on the battlefields of the Mist. It was that smile of his that appeared when opportunities like _this_ popped up: opportunities for bloodshed and battle.

But he was different now, stronger in mind. He schooled himself, getting serious once more. He wasn't here to play games, or take it easy, or enjoy himself. He was here to take care of business, wage war, and end this conflict as soon as possible so that he could back and continue the pursuit of his own agenda.

His Mangekyou spun to life, and, just as Poseidon, Amphitrite, and Triton arrived, he was engulfed in a twisting inferno of emerald chakra. Shin'en elevated into the air, the twister of chakra spiraling up, up, and higher. At the base, the twister took shape, becoming legs, clothes, armor, waist, chest, arms, and finally, a head.

The Atlanteans all looked up in horror. The enemy sea creatures all came to an abrupt halt. The sea deities suddenly felt very, very small.

Shin'en was smirking. With a mental command, his Perfect Susano'o took one step forward and shook the seafloor. A massive cloud of silt erupted around the footfall. The chakra construct strode forward with a slow and powerful gait, each contact of its foot with the ground resulting in powerful tremors and gigantic dust clouds.

Those in shelters immediately abandoned them to investigate the colossal sounds, and they all stared slack-jawed and amazed. Babes cried at the disturbance, children cheered and were children, and adults didn't know what to do besides watch.

The Perfect Susano'o took a final step and stopped, for before it was the enemy general, Oceanus.

He looked more like Triton than Triton did, as in the Disney Triton, with long white hair, a flowing white beard, a bare chest sculpted with muscle, a mermaid's tail, and little crab claws sprouting from his head.

Shin'en looked down on him from on high, and Oceanus closed his eyes, making the younger being smirk. _'So, they've learned.'_

"Oceanus," the Abyss greeted. "Will you surrender peacefully?"

"No."

"Okay."

If the enemy had been better informed of just what this colossal _thing_ was, they would've been much more inclined to retreat immediately upon seeing it. As it currently stood, they had no idea what it was besides really tall.

Shin'en almost pitied these fools as the Susano'o's arms moved, a sword being raised and a hilt being grasped. And the blade was unsheathed with great force, and there was even greater destruction. Shin'en had drawn the sword in an upward slash, and the released devastation reflected that.

The ocean floor split apart, releasing the glow of magma. The ocean itself separated as if by Moses. A rift several hundred feet wide suddenly opened in the middle of the Atlantic and stayed that way for over a minute. The transcendental wave continued upward and split apart the storm clouds, revealing the bright waves of the afternoon sun of this part of the world. Back down below, if one were to put all of the golden dust into a pile, that pile would weigh more than a hundred tons.

The entire enemy army, Oceanus, Phorcys, Keto, Aigaios, the telekhines and the old monsters, had all been wiped out in a single swing of the Susano'o's sword.

The Atlantic came back together in a mighty crash, and the Atlantean magicians strained and would've died if not for the help of the sea gods, for that much water coming down at once would've been damaging even to the realm of sea deities. The Susano'o stood still during the torrent, neither bending, breaking, or buckling under the force of the water.

When the ocean settled, there was a moment of silence as the situation was digested, and then, when it became clear that victory had just been achieved, there was one man who cheered, followed by over a hundred thousand.

Poseidon grabbed Amphitrite, lifting her and spinning her around, and then he brought her in for the deepest kiss they shared in a century. She was, after all, his wife, the woman he had fallen the most in love with and had married. When the kiss ended, husband and wife shared a look, and then both looked at the emerald monolith their child/stepchild was encased in, and they both swam to it, intent on doing…something for the boy.

Hugging him and congratulating him and saying thank you a million times didn't sound appropriate, but they would think of something.

The Susano'o's wings snapped out, and it shot right out of the Atlantic Ocean like a bullet. The displacement of all the water created a monstrous, bubbly wake, and the eruption from the surface trailed a massive column of white spray. Shin'en went up, and up, and higher still, soaring through the dissipating storm clouds to the farthest edge of the lower atmosphere.

Yes, it alerted Zeus that he was here, but there was nothing the sky god could do about it, not with all of his attention required on fighting Typhon.

The Susano'o dissipated, leaving Shin'en to come to a brief moment of suspension in the air, before he dissolved into vapor. In Manhattan, it was approaching dawn of the fourteenth day of August, and this would be the day, that preparations were made for war. Shin'en had no desire or need to be a part of such an activity, as he had his own plan that he would enact upon his return to the city.

He had been lucky that Oceanus hadn't used the red stone given to him by Jashin to boost himself, but he doubted Krios would have the same absentmindedness with the Romans.

Camp Jupiter was threatened by Mt. Othrys, and, for the sake of Continuity, the black throne needed to be toppled and the Titan of the South needed to be slain.

Something only Shin'en was capable of in this world of super-powered Titans.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **In summary: Shin'en's ideology scares even Kronos, Triton and Persephone went surfing together among other things (no, they did not have sex), and the**_ _ **Perfect Susano'o**_ _ **is overpowered, being able to wipe out an army of Titans and monsters, split the ocean, and cleave apart the clouds in a single swing. Just being drawn out of the sheath, actually.**_

 _ **Next chapter: Shin'en vs. Krios, the Titan of Stars**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	3. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 3

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 3_

 _ **Still rolling along smoothly, I see. Over 60 Reviews, and over 80 Follows and Favs.**_

 _ **Magnificent.**_

 _ **This chapter is Shin'en vs. Krios, with a little bit from the Romans, and a brief little cameo at the end.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en materialized in midair above Mt. Tam, and he brought a platform of water together under his feet no thicker than a piece of paper, and he hovered in place, observing. The fortress that was Othrys had been completely rebuilt, with no signs of damage from the fight between him and Atlas. In the distance, there was a massive pile of rubble where Mt. Diablo used to be, and Shin'en could see what looked like scientists.

Most likely searching for meteor fragments.

There was also no downward bulge coming from the sky, meaning that Ouranos was keeping his word in staying up there instead of trying to smash Gaea, so he didn't have to worry about being forced into the Titan's Curse, but neither did he have the opportunity to use the Titan's Curse to neutralize a threat.

Speaking of threats, Shin'en rose a single brow at what he was seeing.

The Romans were there, dressed in an interesting combination of purple t-shirts, jeans, and combat armor, but they were not fighting an army of dracanae, but…things. They were monsters that Shin'en hadn't ever seen before, but they were all of distinct shape:

Fish, scorpion, bear, lion, bull, crab, dragon, a Pegasus, and a sea monster of some kind—hold up.

Their bodies were black like the night sky, and lining their skin were varying amounts of lights, but those lights were in certain patterns. Shin'en looked to the sky, it being night here on the west coast, and saw that there were constellations missing from where they were supposed to be.

Slowly, he looked back at the battle below him, it dawning on him that the Titan of Constellations had made monsters out of the constellations.

"Huh. Neat."

There was a loud cry as one of the constellation beasts was felled, and Shin'en watched the monster melt upward, the lights in its body shooting to the heavens, taking their place in the sky.

However, despite the victory over one of the monsters, there were many Roman dead cooling on the slopes of Mt. Tam. Without a monster army at his command, Krios was performing his defensive assignment well. Or maybe he did have a monster army, and was simply content with letting his constellation monsters thin the Romans.

Shin'en reached out, feeling the water in the air, and he felt no distinctive shapes of the monsters he knew. In fact, all he felt within the fortress and the surrounding area was a single being, undoubtedly Krios.

A sudden build-up of energy made Shin'en's gaze snap to its origin, and he saw Jason, his cousin, eyes glowing brightly as he levitated. With a shout that had an otherworldly echo to it, the son of Jupiter called down the lightning, and struck all the monsters. The battlefield lit up like a Christmas tree, the monsters screeching. Then, in a resonating clap of thunder, all the monsters exploded, the lights in their bodies ascending to the heavens.

There was silence, and then cheering as the Romans celebrated their victory, but it was a victory that quickly died, as Jason had pulled overtime on that lightning, and fell to a knee with a cough of blood, steam rising from his body. Another factor that killed the joy was Krios himself emerging.

He stood on a balcony that lacked a rail of any kind, allowing his whole body to be revealed.

He wore classic armor, with plates on his shins, a battle kilt, hard boots, breastplate, and vambraces, but it got different with his helmet. Pitch-black with a T-shaped opening, an opening so thin his eyes and mouth couldn't be seen, with horns sprouting from the temples. Krios' entire set of armor was black and dotted with lights, a clear indication of his domain, and the skin that was revealed was a strange shade of orange, like a nebula.

"Romans," the Titan's voice rolled over the field of battle, not loud, but heard by all. "Get out of here. If I wanted I could lay waste to you now. I choose not to because I don't have to, but do not test me. My generosity has its limits. You should consider yourselves lucky I'm allowing you to live long enough to see the coming of the new Golden Age. Now begone from here, before I turn you all to ash."

Shin'en allowed his platform to fade away, and he dropped probably a thousand feet to the ground below. He slammed into the earth with enough force to send a cloud of dust shooting sky high. He attracted all the attention, and he strolled out of the crater without a care in the world.

Krios spun around, the T in his helmet glowing. "YOU!"

"Me," Shin'en said casually. "Me, me, me…hello, Titan of the South."

The Romans were thoroughly confused at what was happening, and they parted from Shin'en's path as he entered their scattered ranks. However, such proximity brought bout shock. You see, the Romans had seen Shin'en before, when he was not wearing his cloak. This time, they paled and stood frozen.

Shin'en came to a stop beside the still-kneeling Jason.

"You…you're that person from before," he muttered with bloodied teeth. "Are you…are you…a goddess?"

The Abyss slowly turned his gaze to stare out over Jason's head, and then he slowly moved his gaze down to look Jason in the eye. Silence reigned between them for so long that Jason squirmed in discomfort, and he felt stupid for asking that question.

 _Of course_ ,this person was a goddess.

"No. I am not a goddess."

 _Of course,_ this person wasn't a goddess. Jason felt so silly.

"Can you stand?"

The son of Jupiter got to his feet. "I can make it."

"Good. Get Reyna to share her strength as needed, and get your forces away from here. The battle between me and Krios will be…destructive. More so than the battle between me and Atlas."

Jason did not dispute that claim, and issued the order for retreat, something that no one argued with.

With the Romans performing an unorganized fast march back down the mountain, that left Krios and Shin'en by themselves. The Titan dropped from his balcony, landing with a loud bang from his weight. He was tall, ten feet, and packed with all the muscle he thought would be appropriate for such a height, making him look like something out of _Fist of the North Star_.

It reminded Shin'en of the Third Raikage when he was using Orochimaru's Curse Seal.

And that thought pissed him off.

"So, _you_ are the mighty Shin'en. So powerful that you make Kronos himself weary, so powerful that you killed Atlas and made the sky rise from the ground. How fascinating, grandnephew. But, you will not be able to defeat me."

"I've already defeated you. You unintentionally pissed me off and so therefore I've elected to not waste time on a fair fight and have instead ensured your death. But don't let that stop you from explaining yourself to me. Please, continue."

"Right, as I was saying," Krios cleared his throat, proud, gloating, and killing himself with pride. "During the Golden Age, mortal understanding of the stars was that they were but lights in the night sky, lights that told stories of the gods, and so that was the extent of my authority over the stars…"

Shin'en felt the Titan grin beneath his helmet.

"But, thanks to science, the stars of become such powerful objects. Balls of constant nuclear explosions, orbs of radiance so bright they could blind you even if you weren't looking at them, so large they pull entire solar systems around them. The super dense neutron star gives me the power to crush anything I want. The super radiant O stars, bright enough to outshine Apollo by 30,000 times. And, my favorite…when a big enough star dies and collapses, it becomes the single most destructive thing in all of Creation…a _black hole_."

That grin persisted.

"Yes, thanks to the mortals, they've broadened my domain to levels I never fathomed! I have abilities and powers that outstrip that of my little brother! I don't need this stupid rock from the freak Shinto god—I have enough powers to kill you myself! Without any assistance! I can destroy this whole planet if I wanted! All I have to do to do it is think it! I can make a neutron star or a black hole, and watch it tear Gaea to shreds! Or I can think of just a regular star, like the main sequence star that is Apollo, and how many times a nuclear explosion occurs on the surface. And not even that! I can make myself like the sun's corona, and burn this world to a crisp in an instant! So, come then, little boy! Come and fight the full power of the stars!"

Krios seized up and froze, so much heat sapped from him at once that his very divine being became ice. Then, he shattered into a million sparkling pieces that twinkled as they flitted out of existence.

Not once did Krios even think that the Shin'en before him was simply a trick of the light. Not once did it occur to the Titan of the South that he had been fooled by an illusion of vapor, and had been outflanked. Not once did it trickle into his head that he was leaving himself open to powerful jutsu from behind. No, so caught up in gloating about his admittedly terrifying power, Krios was completely ignorant to the real Shin'en standing behind him, his right eye leaking a tear of blood.

As for the Abyss, his chakra was cold, his eyes hard and vindictive.

"You're right. Even without the red stone, you are perhaps the most powerful Titan, maybe even more so than Kronos. The power of the stars, terrifying power indeed. The power to generate heat enough to scorch planets, generate super novae and destroy entire solar systems, create pockets of density so great that any celestial body would be torn apart, or sneeze a solar flare that'll wipe out everything from here to the moon.

"Perhaps had I been in a more generous mood, I would've gladly cut loose and fought you to the death. I might've even had to break out my most powerful techniques just to keep up with you…but, in the end, I would've won anyway. You're too brash, Krios, and have not the mind for strategy and tactics. Alas, it's all for naught. Your appearance made some bad memories resurface, and I'm afraid it robbed me of all desires for battle. I hope Kronos and Hyperion don't do such things, elsewise my birthday party is going to be a very boring one. Now, should I go back to Manhattan, or should I stay for a little chat with my cousin?"

Shin'en looked up in thought. "I don't believe I was able to catch Jason in any preemptive genjutsu two years ago, and therefore he is vulnerable to the machinations of Hera and Gaea. While the main plan is to completely prevent the Giant War, it pays to have a backup plan."

With that, the Abyss vanished in a swirl of water.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Romans had built a forward basecamp on Mt. Tam, using the slopes to their advantage, making their temporary fort more secure on the sides and front than the back. In their fort, they were on edge. Upon the recognition of the stranger, memories resurfaced. Memories of Terminus' barrier being shattered, Temple Hill crumbling, Mt. Diablo exploding. Memories of cold, such terrible, terrible cold like they would never be warm again, and they were going to die a slow, frigid death. Memories of great power and destruction, and that was what had them truly discomforted.

The stranger had not been gentle, and so the lack of the sounds of battle from higher on the mountain made many worry. Not for the stranger, per se, but for themselves. If there was no battle, then did that mean that Krios had erased the stranger? Had the stranger erased Krios?

In the command tent, the praetors Jason and Reyna discussed strategy with the ten centurions.

"How many have we lost?" Jason asked.

Dakota, son of Bacchus, reported, "We arrived here with a counted 235 legionnaires…now, the last head count was 197."

Jason's jaw tightened. "Injured?"

"Of that 197, only 171 are still battle-capable."

"Unicorn drought, nectar, and ambrosia?"

"Supplies are holding steady, but not after another day like this," Dakota said grimly.

Jason nodded. "Any possibility of recovering bodies for burial?"

Gwen shifted. "There's a possibility," she said uneasily, "but if Krios sees any of us coming, it might trigger him, or he could send whatever forces he has to crush us. If we try, we'd have to bear a white flag, or send small units on grab-and-go missions, which will cost us manpower here, and potentially more soldiers."

Jason nodded. "Fine. We'll worry about retrieval later. For now, we need another plan of attack in case… _that guy_ …fails."

" _That guy_ has a name."

Swords were ripped out of sheaths as all turned to the sudden voice, and no one knew exactly what to feel when they saw the cloaked stranger calmly sitting in a chair in the corner of the tent, draped in shadows, crimson lights shining where his eyes would be.

Jason kept his sword raised. "And your name is…?"

"Shin'en."

"Sheen…en?" Jason pronounced.

"I'm impressed. Some guy from Victoria, Texas, and I'm sure many others, kept pronouncing it as Shin—en. It's annoying."

"I…suppose so," Jason blinked. His name was easy to pronounce, and so he never had that problem. "That name sounds…foreign."

"For all intents and purposes, it's Japanese, where I's are pronounced like long E's."

"Um, okay." Amongst all the things the Romans expected to happen today, language lessons from a stranger was not one of them. "So…Krios…?"

"Dead."

Jason's eyes widened. "Dead? You mean you _killed_ a Titan?"

"Oh, I trust he'll be back some time in the future. I don't personally know how long it takes divine beings to reform in Tartarus."

"Oh~, that kind of dead."

"Yes, that kind of dead."

But someone had to be a skeptic. The centurion of the First Cohort, one Octavian Augustus. The spindly little silver-tongued legacy narrowed his eyes. "The last time you were present in Rome, Shin'en, _if_ that is your real name, you destroyed our temples and sent Terminus into a fit for weeks, and then you vanished, presumably fighting the Titan Atlas. Now you come to our aid, and bring news that you defeated the Titan Krios, however there were no signs of battle. No sounds, no shaking, no explosions. Forgive me if I'm skeptical of what you say, Shin'en."

"Remain skeptical. It matters not to me."

Octavian's mouth worked to form a response to that complete dismissal. In the silence, Reyna took the stage.

"I remember you." The red gaze turned to her, and it was all she could to not run away and hide. As it was, she tightened her sphincters and continued. "Circe's island. Your sister almost killed me. You stopped her."

"She was having some issues. It's been fixed."

Reyna shifted. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"So, you _did_ take down Krios?" Jason asked.

"Yes."

"So quickly and quietly?"

"He pissed me off. I don't play nice when I'm pissed off."

Someone nudged Octavian. "Chill, man," he whispered.

The augur scowled but kept his tongue.

Jason rapidly blinked, coming to terms with something. "So…the rise of Saturn…Mt. Othrys…the battle…the lives lost…the war…Krios…that's it? We're done here?"

"Yes," Shin'en answered simply.

Jason blinked. Reyna blinked. The centurions all blinked.

"Um, okay then. Uh," the son of Jupiter looked around, "deconstruct the fort and…pack up…" he cleared his throat, and tried again in his praetor voice.

"Deconstruct the fort and pack the supplies. Get some men together to retrieve the dead. The battle is won here, but not in the east. Mt. Olympus is threatened, and we're the only ones that can defend her. We leave for Manhattan in hour."

Before the centurions could scatter, Shin'en stood. He didn't bolt to his feet, but merely rose, gracefully, beautifully, with control and nobility. He drew all eyes to him.

"Don't bother going east. That is my territory, and you are not welcome there. Do not test me, either. The generosity I've shown in defeating Krios for you was a preemptive measure in the event of something that did not come to pass. That is the extent of it. Attempt travel eastward, and I will kill you. Do I make myself clear, children of Rome?"

Unbidden, they all said "Yes, sir!" in tandem, and were left looking at each other in confusion at just why that happened.

"Good," Shin'en nodded. He stepped from the shadow, and revealed his face. His Sharingan spun slowly, not that he hadn't already done what he intended. "There may come a day when my sister visits New Rome. I expect her to be treated with…kindness. Fall below my expectations, and I will finish what Krios didn't necessarily start, but intended to do. Good day to you, Romans."

The red eyes achieved peak luminosity, becoming blinding. When the glow faded, and the spots disappeared from their eyes, the Romans were left stunned at Shin'en's disappearance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The son of Poseidon frowned. That had taken much less time than what he thought it would, but he still had something else he needed to do, something he almost forgot to do.

In a swirl of vapor, he appeared inside the unguarded Mt. Othrys, meaning Kronos had brought every monster he had with him to Manhattan, meaning he had a much larger force than what he typically did at that point in the timeline. It mattered not, however. Any number times zero was zero, and no amount of monsters posed any real threat to the likes of Shin'en.

The Abyss stood before the black throne, and found himself unimpressed. It wasn't grand, with a massive design about it or behind it. It didn't even share the same similarities with the typical royal chair seen in media and in London. It was rather simple actually, even if the back was shaped like a scythe blade on its side. It was high and wide enough for someone of impressive build to occupy, displaying their physical power, but Shin'en thought the entire structure stupid.

His experience with those that sat on thrones was that they failed to realize that they bled when cut.

Still though…there was an _allure_ in the air. Something that was puling Shin'en to the black throne, tempting him to sit in it with promises of victory and power. He could feel it pressing against his mind, trying to show him what he wanted to see.

Yūrei alive.

Yugito smiling.

Persephone eternally happy.

Him and Na—

Shin'en's eyes glowed bright emerald, and a beam erupted, a beam that completely erased the black throne and pushed right through the rest of Othrys, shooting through the fortress like it was made of warm butter, and shot right over the land, continuing north until Shin'en cut the chakra flow. In the far, far distance, the laser of Gale chakra destabilized and erupted, blowing a mile-wide crater ten feet into the ground at its deepest point.

With a scoff, Shin'en spun on his heel with a swish of his cloak, and vanished in another swirl of water. It was about three in the morning in San Francisco, meaning it was about six in the morning in Manhattan, meaning that August fourteenth was here, and Kronos wouldn't attack until the coming evening, twelve hours away. However, there were already many differences between how it was now and how it was supposed to be, and so it stood to reason that the Titan could and would step up his timetable.

However, his boat had been blown up less than two hours ago, and even for a time deity it took time to reorganize the troops and bolster moral in the face of almost certain death. Not to mention get everyone's game face back on for the coming fight after the curveball of mass teleportation. Then again…

Shin'en saw it in two ways: one, Kronos was still reorganizing; two, Kronos had used his power over time to speed up everyone's recovery and was now ready to attack, four days from the day of prophecy. He was either held back by letting his forces ready themselves, held back by dates, or he wasn't being held back by anything and was massing his attack right now.

Or, another possibility, he had used his powers over time to speed up the hours and days to something more to his liking, meaning that at least in Manhattan, possibly the whole world, it was not August fourteenth, but already a later date.

Such thoughts made Shin'en mad at himself for overthinking a simple yes or no question (go back to Manhattan now?). But it was also such thoughts that made him such a great planner.

As he travelled through the vapor on his way back to the east coast, he took one side stop.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _21_ _st_ _Nome_

 _Brooklyn_

The Brooklyn House was seeing power it hadn't seen in decades. With Carter and Sadie, under the tutelage of their uncle Amos, teaching the Path of the Gods to a small battalion of young magicians, the House was a wellspring of power, talent, and strength. They all knew themselves to not be invincible, but they knew themselves to still be powerful.

But that still didn't stop any of them from jumping out of their beads early, early in the morning when massively loud banging came from the front doors. Staffs and wands were out and ready as the teens, preteens, and children all assembled at the doors, Carter and Sadie at the front, Amos ahead of them.

He performed a spell, one that presumably allowed him to see what was on the other side of the door, and what he saw made him stiffen as if he had just seen Apophis the Chaos Serpent.

"Amos?" Sadie asked.

"None of you even think of casting a spell. None of you even think of moving, or talking. Don't even breathe."

"What's out there?" Carter asked.

"Not _what_ , _who_."

"A threat?"

"Only if you make him one…or he's here to kill you."

"Is… _he_ …here to kill us, then?" Sadie asked.

"I don't know. No sudden movements, any of you."

With that, Amos Kane opened the doors, and revealed a teen boy in a cloak that one kid recognized. "Hey! That's an Akatsuki cloak from _Naruto_!"

The teen looked at the preteen boy, who paled and shrank, and nodded once. "Yes, it is an Akatsuki cloak. Good eye."

"With all due respect, my lord," Amos said, surprising all, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm giving you fair warning, Amos Kane. I know you know what is coming very, very soon, and I don't intend to pull my punches for any reason. This is the only time I'm going to give you to get out of dodge before I flatten the Eastern Seaboard. Goodbye."

The teen in the cloak vanished.

"Uh, Amos-"

"Everyone, pack your things, _now_! We're leaving for the First Nome in ten minutes."

They all just stared at the eldest Kane. "MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"

That was enough to galvanize everyone but Carter and Sadie, who stood by their uncle's side.

"Who was that?" Sadie asked.

Amos gave her a glance. "Someone that even Apophis would not so foolhardily challenge to a fight. Now, pack your things."

He didn't give the children time to argue, and instead stormed away to his own quarters.

Carter and Sadie shared a look, arguing between themselves with their eyes, and they ultimately decided to do as they were told.

…

The inhabitants of the 21st Nome would arrive at the First Nome no more than twenty minutes later, and upon their arrival they were greeted by Desjardins who demanded the reason for their presence.

"Shin'en," Amos answered.

"Thank Heaven you're all alright."

Sadie and Carter blinked at how the man who tried to kill him was suddenly so relieved to see them alive upon the utterance of a word they didn't recognize.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en stood in the middle of Time's Square. The sun was rising now, steadily cresting the horizon. All of the screens were off, the Square empty. The city, hailed as the City that Never Sleeps, was quiet. Peaceful, even. Shin'en stood there and wasn't put off by the silence of the city. He found it serene.

Calming, even.

It was strange to see a city like this so peaceful, and not embroiled in a post-apocalyptic story. It gave one time to appreciate the majesty of Manhattan. Its towering buildings, amazing feats of human perseverance and ingenuity, the shining glass, capturing the beauty of the sunrise, the empty streets, wide and filled with the promise of a future for those willing to bust their ass for it.

Yes, without the orchestra of bustling people and honking taxis, without the commotion of construction and commuting, without the _fucking people_ …Manhattan, New York was a beautiful place.

It was a shame that the city would soon be nothing but rubble.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Not much action here, but the stage has been set. This was more of a talking chapter, which was intended.**_

 _ **The next one will be the true beginning of the Battle of Manhattan, but before that, Shin'en will face both Persephone and Annabeth…and he's not exactly over Asteria and Annabeth from**_ **Xenophobic** _ **. PTSD is always fun to write about, especially when it's the PTSD of an overpowered teen with issues.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	4. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 4

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 4_

 _ **And so the sequel to**_ **Backup Plan** _ **truly begins…**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Manhattan_

 _Evening of August 14, 2009_

Shin'en did not remain idle in the city for an entire day. He busied himself by setting the playing field, keeping distant tabs on the amassing army to the northeast, on the other side of the Lincoln Tunnel. He could've collapsed it, but that would reveal his presence, and obscurity was key.

He had plans in place, and backup plans in case those plans failed, and he was working on backup plans for the backup plans in case the backup plans failed. Planception.

Anyway, the sun rose and began to fall, just in time for the arrival of a convoy of soccer mom vans with Delphi Strawberry Service emblazoned across their sides. Shin'en watched from the top of a skyscraper, and then he vanished.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Reread_ The Last Olympian _for any refreshers on canon during everything leading up to where canon!Percy starts giving out orders_.

 _I'm not covering it._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Up on Olympus by the elevator exit, the combined forces of Camp Half-Blood, a force of about 150 demigods, were gathered around Annabeth and Persephone, who were looking over a magic shield.

"Alright, guys," the unofficial general that was Persephone said, "we've talked about this back at Camp. You all know your roles and assignments, which bridges you're going to, and what tunnels you're going to guard."

"Yeah, but that still leaves the Lincoln open," Beckendorf said. "We never figured how to cover that one since Clarisse and her siblings got their panties all twisted. And now we know there's a Sherman tank and an army coming up that way."

Nico and Bianca would have been the optimal choices, but Persephone had made the decision to put the both of them on the mission to recruit Hades to the cause in an attempt to bolster her forces. Now she was regretting it. Terribly so.

"We'll cover that tunnel," a voice said from across the street.

Everyone's heads turned, and there were mixed reactions to seeing Thalia and the Hunters of Artemis.

Persephone and Annabeth brightened. "Thalia!" they said in tandem. They rose and the daughter of Zeus ran to them for a group hug.

"Yeah," Thalia said. "We'll take the Lincoln. After this is all over, we're getting hamburgers together, girl's day out. My treat."

"Awesome," Persephone smiled. "Nothing like some greasy goodness after a war to settle the nerves."

Thalia placed a hand on her shoulder. "We'll make it through this. I promise."

 _Clink_

Like trained animals being given a signal, every head turned to the sound of a cigarette lighter being flicked open, and there _he_ was. A cigarette burned calmly at his lips, and his eyes were narrowed and serious. He was looking at Thalia.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," Shin'en said. His voice came from the deepest part of his chest, destroying any confusion over what his gender was and which twin he was.

The air became cold and thick, tension befalling all. The sheer presence of Persephone's little brother incited feelings of submission and impending death. Any spitfires dimmed, any kind of rebellion was quelled, any inkling of talking back or being smart was slaughtered without mercy. Already, a gloomy overcast was settling over the skies, and the air was twinged with something…dangerous.

Like a storm was coming.

Persephone was the only one smiling, seemingly oblivious to the sudden dark mood. "Percy!"

"Hi."

He slid off the top of the lamppost he was sitting on top of, the demigods moving from him as he walked right up to his sister. Thalia swallowed and stepped back. Annabeth shifted, but didn't move. Persephone spread her arms and went to throw herself around her brother, but jammed her stomach with his five-foot length of black metal. Not hard, but enough to hold her at bay.

Shin'en looked at Thalia. "Where's Zoё?"

The daughter of Zeus looked at the ground forlornly, and a Hunter coughed into her fist. "She, ah… _died_ about a week after Lady Artemis was rescued from Mt. Othrys. Surprise monster attack. We were overwhelmed."

"Unfortunate," Shin'en said, though he didn't sound sympathetic. "I imagine Tobi would've been devastated to hear that."

"Who's Tobi?" Annabeth asked.

"A codename for a little psychopath whose first major gift in life was a pacifier given to him by his adoptive mother."

"What?" someone eeped out.

"Shut up. You two," Shin'en indicated his sister and her girlfriend, "come with me. The rest of you, get to the throne room. Now."

There was mass hesitation.

The son of Athena, Malcolm, voiced everyone's thoughts. "Uh…we've got, um… _orders_ …invasion and all that-"

"Get. To. The throne room."

"Getting to the throne room," Malcolm nodded. With his obedience came the galvanization of everyone else, Hunters included, and the Greek army disappeared inside the throne room. Soon enough, Shin'en, Persephone and Annabeth were left on outside by themselves.

"Now what?" Annabeth asked.

Shin'en put his hands on them, and they all turned into water vapor.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They all materialized in the one place Persephone never would have thought: her penthouse apartment in the Upper East Side.

She didn't stop to marvel anything, and simply launched herself at her brother, her arms going around his neck, her face next to his. Persephone fully expected for him to push her off him or tell her to get off, but tears sprung in her eyes when his own arms wrapped around her body, and she heard him whisper, "I've missed you so much."

"I've missed you too, little brother. How've you been?"

"Busy." He pulled away and while she was reluctant, Seph pulled back too. She looked into his eyes and saw that they would have to catch up later, and be serious now. As she looked into his eyes, she saw pain there, like looking at her dredged up memories of agony, like he was looking at a ghost. As she continued to stare, trying to decipher that look, she got sleepy, and then she collapsed. Shin'en caught her and set her down easy. "Sorry, sis," he whispered.

With a half-Ram seal, Annabeth, whom he had rendered unconscious during the vapor trip, gasped awake and bolted to her feet, looking around with wild eyes. When she realized where she was, she gained a look of confusion, but when she saw Persephone sleeping peacefully at Shin'en's feet, she looked at Shin'en questioningly.

"I need to talk with you alone."

He jerked his head in the universal message for 'follow me.' Annabeth did so, and joined him on the balcony overlooking the city.

"So," he said, in the most upbeat tone she had ever heard him use, and then she got really tense when he put an arm around her shoulders and yanked her close. "What is your opinion about pull-ups?"

…

To say Annabeth was floored was an understatement. "Ah…they're a good exercise…? I can do 213 before my arms give out."

Shin'en nodded once. "Good, good…what are your opinions about the _other_ kind of pull-ups?"

"As in training pants? For…potty training?"

"More specifically the ones used for bedwetting."

"Goodnites?"

"Yes, those."

"Uh…"

If it had been literally anyone else who had asked her that, she probably would've punched them in the face for wasting her time with such a stupid question, and if had been certain pranksters, she would've laughed them off before telling them to stop bothering her. As it stood, being asked this by _Shin'en_ of all people, made her feel threatened.

She looked at him from the corner of her eye, trying to discern if this was a joke in poor taste, but from all that she could see, he was being dead serious, and that both confused and concerned her. Why such grimness when asking about bedwetting undergarments? Was this some kind of test to gain his favor? If so, what was the correct answer?

Was it: I don't know, I don't have to use them?

Was it: they're helpful for those that need them?

Or was it: they're a detrimental crutch that kids rely upon and don't grow out of because Goodnites provide a false sense of security?

Apparently, she didn't give an answer fast enough, because Shin'en asked another question, this one even weirder than the last.

"Have you ever had so much as an inkling of a desire to ever put one on for any reason?"

When she had been performing her research for things to try with Persephone, Annabeth had run across a fetish dedicated to things like Goodnites. She would admit that she didn't entirely write it off, but she would also admit that it was something that didn't appeal to her in the slightest. As such, her answer was short and to the point.

"No…" however, it was stated with the typical confused undertone of one who had no idea what was going on, or where it was headed.

Shin'en nodded again, although he looked… _pained_ …at that answer? _Relieved_? Both at the same time? Annabeth couldn't tell, the boy next to her being such an enigma. He looked almost grieved by that fact, like he had almost had a piece of something from long ago that had brought him joy, but at the same time he looked like a weight had been removed from his shoulders.

If Annabeth had to put it in a simile, Shin'en looked like a sober man with a drinking problem that had just been denied rum. Sad at the loss, grateful that he wasn't being tempted to go back to his old ways.

Which raised a _million_ questions, none of which Annabeth got to answer, because Shin'en turned to look at her, releasing her from his grip. His eyes glowed softly, seriously, dangerously, and it made Annabeth gulp.

"Good. If that sentiment ever changes, barring something medical, it will not be good for you."

Annabeth's ADHD made her blurt out, "How so?"

She immediately took a step back in reflexive defense, a hand on her dagger, though Shin'en didn't look angered or annoyed, either because he didn't care for the question, or because she was so pathetically weak that she wasn't a threat.

He answered her question, by drawing his sword slightly from its sheath, and she was mesmerized by the blade's polished, mirror-like surface, and its paper-thin make.

"Put it this way: if I ever find out that you're wearing a pull-up for fun, or for a sexual encounter with my sister, I'll kill you, swiftly, and then I'll harvest everything I can from your corpse. I'll scalp you and sell your hair. I'll jar your organs, peel off your skin, powder your bones, and sell it all on the black market. I'll collect every drop of your blood into a plastic container, and sell it to a bunch of stupid teenagers to use in their vampire cult. I'll make damn sure every bit of you is scattered across the fucking globe. Am I clear?"

Annabeth could've used a pull-up right now, honestly. "C-Crystal."

"Good. Now let's gets to Olympus. Kronos' army is drawing closer across the island's access points, and I need to make something very clear to all of you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Olympus_

Persephone didn't remember anything after hearing her brother say that he had missed her, something that made her heart swell, but suddenly she was on Olympus, Annabeth next to her, campers and Hunters in front of her, little brother before them all, standing close to the edge of the floating mountain.

"I'm going to make this as simple and clear as I possibly can," Shin'en said. "None of you are going to leave this mountain, and none of you are going to participate in the war for your country and your gods. Not a single one of you has a shred of true combat experience, and not a single one of you has any idea how to wage war. Case in point, your _general_ over here has all the maturity of a five-year-old."

"Hey!"

"To be fair," Annabeth said academically, "you do still call your panties… _undies_."

"So? Lots of people still call them undies!"

One brave individual couldn't help but speak out. None other than Silena Beauregard stepped up to the plate. "Oh, and you do? You're not any older than any of us, and I'm sure any of the Hunters have more war experience than all of us here combined, including you."

Shin'en blew air out of his nose, the only sign that he found that humorous. "Let's put this into perspective then, shall we?" He cleared his throat.

"Has anyone here ever killed another human being in cold blood? Has anyone here ever stared into the eyes of another individual as the light left them, your sword buried in their chest? Has anyone here ever spilled the blood of other across their body? Has anyone ever killed someone, to save ten more? How many of you have sacrificed your friends to achieve victory? No one, eh? Not even any of you, Hunters of Artemis? Never let rage overcome you as you killed some hapless boy or ignorant man? No? No one else? No killers here? That's a fucking shame."

Persephone muttered, "Watch your language."

Shin'en turned his attention back to Silena. "Girl, think of your most beloved person. Whether that's Charles, Clarisse, your mortal family, or one of your halfsiblings there. Think of them, picture them, recall every fond memory that you can. Is all of that firmly in your mind? Good…now, if it meant victory…if it meant that Kronos and his Titans would be sent back to Tartarus, his army of monsters with him, his traitorous demigod soldiers turned back to the light; if it meant peace everlasting on earth, the gods claiming all of their children, spending time with all of their children; that person you love most, to bring about all that I described…would you _kill_ that person?"

Silena flinched as if branded with a block of dry ice. The army rippled, but they remained quiet, their eyes now on the daughter of Aphrodite. Beckendorf was staring at his girlfriend, terrified for her, terrified of her answer.

"I…I…"

Shin'en's eyes glowed, his breath misting against the air. "Well? Would you? Would you kill this loved one to bring about peace?"

Silena fidgeted. "I…"

"Would you kill them so that the gods would openly love all their children? Love you, love your siblings and your cousins, love all of you…except for one…"

The councilor of Aphrodite's cabin stood like she was trying not to pee, her legs crossed, a hand to her crotch. She was folding in on herself, becoming tenser and tenser by the long seconds. "I-I…"

"Would you kill Charles to end the Second Titanomachy without any other causalities? Well? _WOULD YOU!?"_

Silena snapped. "WOULD YOU!? _Could_ you!? Do you even feel love, are you even capable of it! What about you, huh?" She was heaving, her hair raggedy and makeup ruined. "Would _you_ kill your most beloved person to do all that you said?"

Shin'en grinned ruefully, and Persephone bowed her head.

" _Not a chance in Hell."_

Seph's head shot up so fast Annabeth heard her neck pop.

Shin'en's eyes glowed. "The position I put you in is the easy way out. Not lost friends or family. No innocent bystanders. No property damage. No collateral of any kind….Innocents, homes, collateral…things I care _nothing_ about. What makes me the one most qualified to wage war, is that I am the least attached to all of it. I care not for human beings, or their livelihoods. I care not for this city and anything it represents or stands for. I care not for this world, nor its gods. Because of this, there is nothing to hold me back from throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the enemy.

"The problem with this country's military is that it is limited by the public image of them as the "good guys." The good guys don't drop nukes and end the problem before it becomes a problem. The good guys don't go in and wipe out an entire village to make sure there aren't any insurgents. The good guys don't simply shoot the criminals and save the common folk their tax dollars. The good guys don't simply kill those trespassing on their soil. The good guys have allowed themselves to become limited by imagery, bureaucracy, and the illusion of what's right and wrong. It keeps them from doing what needs to be done. Limitations I don't have.

"There's only one thing that I truly care about, and to make sure that one thing is protected at all times, none of you are leaving here. Should I fail, you're the last line of defense between Kronos and the gods' thrones. If you stop and think about it, it makes more sense for all 174 of you to be up here to defend Olympus, instead of down there. Only so many monsters can come up the elevators at a time, after all."

"But you can't do all of it alone!"

To almost everyone's surprise, a little boy came to the front. An unclaimed from the Hermes cabin, not any older than twelve.

"We're talking about an army of zillions of monsters, led by Coldnose, with help from a hundred other Titans, and who knows how many gods! You'll need our help down there!"

"Good points, but no. You're all staying up here."

Before anyone could argue, Annabeth literally jumped between everyone. "Okay, okay! Enough! The enemy's getting closer as we speak, and we're wasting time by arguing. Shin'en, do everything you can to keep our parents safe. Everyone else, change of plans. We're setting up defenses here all the way up to those doors. Now everyone get moving!"

Shin'en shared one last look with his sister.

"Percy, don't you dare-!"

He leapt over the side of the mountain, and Persephone slapped her face.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up to see Annabeth smiling at her. "He was talking about you, you know."

"Huh?"

"That one thing he truly cared about? It's you. He wants you protected from everything. Monsters, demigods, Titans, gods, all of it, and he just gave you a protection detail of a 170 assorted half-bloods and Hunters. He's also keeping all of us safe, too. Think about it: he wants all of us up here, he's going to fight the enemy all by himself, so that none of us get in his way when he busts out the big guns, not that he'd care but he has enough empathy not to cause undue grief to anyone here, and so that none of us could get hurt, or worse, be killed. He's maximizing our chances of survival by taking the entire load."

"I know," Persephone sighed. "But all of what he's facing…I'm scared he's taking on too much, even for him."

Annabeth squeezed Seph's shoulder, and pulled her into a hug. "He'll be fine. He's too stubborn to die."

The sea princess just buried her head into the crook of her lover's neck.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en rocketed downward, divebombing right for the Empire State Building.

He flipped, righting himself, and his momentum slowed to such a degree that he gently alighted on the top of the spire, balancing gracefully on the point. His cloak settled gently around him, the sleeves calmly sliding into place.

And then, he did the thing that could never have been predicted: he giggled. It started slow enough, deep and from his chest, but it began to pick up, becoming quicker, higher, and then…crescendo.

He threw his head back and shrieked with laughter.

Shin'en puttered out, the overcast becoming a blanket of sickly green that spelled horrible weather for those under the sky. Lightning sparked between the clouds, bringing with it the orchestra of thunder, and the applause of millions of raindrops, and the screaming of the winds. The seas swelled, waves battering the docks, the rivers becoming angry. Moored ships tossed and broke as they were slammed about.

Manhattan became subject to a powerful gale.

On the bridges and in the tunnels, the monsters of Kronos' first attack wave found opposition in the form of the demigods of Camp Half-Blood and the Hunters of Artemis, or rather, a multitude of Shin'en's Shadow Clones using the Transformation Jutsu. The monsters gained enough ground to be in the perfect position, before they were stalled entirely. It all been perfectly timed, of course.

With a deranged grin and madness about his red eyes, Shin'en gasped. "Finally, after so many years~… _war_. An opportunity to cut loose and _enjoy_ myself, if only a little bit." He cackled again, but he did a complete 180, the madness leaving him, seriousness taking over. He sighed.

"I'll have to tighten my hold on them. I forgot how aggressive they could be in situations like this. Oh well, they are part of me, after all, and I have been rude in not letting any of them out to play a little. Perhaps that can be fixed in the coming days. Thoughts for later, however…"

Shin'en's hand sparked with lightning as he raised it above his head. A single discharge set the sky screeching, like putting the first strip of bacon into boiling grease, setting it to a violent sizzle.

"Kirin: Seven Shot."

There were seven roars as seven dragons of lightning struck the earth like the hammers of an angry god. The seven dragons bit down on the Lincoln Tunnel, the Holland Tunnel, the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, and the Queensboro Bridge. Only the Williamsburg was left alone.

Manhattan lit up like the sun had achieved super nova, becoming blinding to any without proper eye protection. The sound of the bridges and tunnels being destroyed in those great explosions ruptured the eardrums of many, and the shockwaves of such terrible power caused much trembling to the city. Glass cracked and shattered across many a skyscraper. Cars left abandoned began a never-ending song of alarmed honking. And the whole Eastern Seaboard shuddered as shaken by child throwing a tantrum.

The rain came in, putting out the fires and clearing the smoke, revealing the ruined bridges and white-stained water below, as the heavy slabs of concrete disturbed their surfaces and creating millions of foamy bubbles.

Olympus had not been spared either, with the floating fortress being buffeted by the shockwaves. The demigods stared slack jawed at the image in Annabeth's shield, completely not comprehending the show they had just watched, Shin'en calling down lightning so powerful that he effortlessly destroyed all but one entrance to Manhattan.

Speaking of the Williamsburg, the Shadow Clones gave up the stalling tactic and slaughtered the 300 monsters attempting to cross with ease.

Still standing on the Empire State Building's spire, Shin'en looked to where the Lincoln Tunnel had been. It was a smart place to set up a forward camp, with it being the closest route to Olympus, but it was also hasty in Shin'en's opinion. It was an obvious place, easy to predict and plan for, and it was a tunnel. Tunnels could be collapsed.

And the Lincoln had indeed been collapsed, as with every other way onto Manhattan except for one. The Shadow Clones had dispelled before the strikes, but the monsters had not been so lucky. There were no demigods in the first assault, exactly as planned.

And now Kronos had a choice to make: he could march North, and come in from that way, having to brave the majority of the island on his march South to the Empire State Building, providing Shin'en with ample ambush time and opportunity to thin the army at his leisure; Kronos could march all the way around to the Williamsburg and enter from that point, which Shin'en had left open for a reason; or Kronos could hit the waves, either trying to cross the Hudson, which would end in disaster for the water was Shin'en's territory, and he had already given the Hudson spirit and the East spirit a sand dollar a piece, enlisting their aid, or he could march down and sail around the harbor to beaching territory and head for the Williamsburg that way, which Shin'en would allow.

The plan called for timing, as August eighteenth was still more or less three days away, but Shin'en did not want to draw things out any longer than he had to, and the same went with Kronos. Typhon was approaching, and he was considered more of a threat than the Titan of Time by all, with his size and ferocity and single-minded determination to destroy Olympus, something that he was hellbent on, and would crush any in his way, even Kronos if he didn't move fast enough.

Typhon was a loose cannon, one that could be used well if used skillfully enough, but relied upon.

No, Kronos and Shin'en both wanted this battle over with as quickly as possible, both before the eighteenth and before Typhon arrived.

It was just a matter of the entrance point. March around, or sail around, to the Williamsburg, come in from the North, or do something entirely different.

Shin'en looked forward to finding out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kronos frowned at this newest development. He looked at the sky and frowned. He looked to the South, and frowned some more. Like Shin'en had predicted, the Titan sought to move with haste and finish this war before Typhon came in and pulled Olympus from the sky, and destroy everything.

However, marching up to come down would take hours, marching all the way around to the Williamsburg would take half a day, and braving the waters, while taking less than an hour, would risk everything because there was no telling what the water would do. Sink everything or let it all pass?

Kronos didn't know, and while he would admit in secret that he cared not for this army or his siblings, he did care about victory, and victory was more easily obtained with both quality and quantity.

"My lord, if I may…"

"Yes, Prometheus?" Kronos allowed his nephew to speak.

"Shin'en has effectively limited our options for entry into Manhattan, and has restricted us to the methods we can use to enter. Going around to the Williamsburg Bridge would take at least half a day, and going to the Harlem River and coming down, while taking less time, would mean a longer march to the Empire State Building. The harbor is our best course for time saving, but the water…is risky."

"Thank you, Prometheus, for giving me information I was already aware of. Do you have something useful for me?"

"A test of the waters, my lord. Literally and physically. Send all of our half-bloods to the harbor and have them sail to the opposite shore. If they arrive unscathed, then it is safe to assume the same will be for us."

Kronos hummed as he considered this course of action. After a brief internal debate, he nodded. "I agree with your thinking, nephew. Send the half-bloods, and tell the soldiers to pack up. Regardless of the water excursion, we will be moving soon."

"Yes, my lord."

Prometheus bowed and left to do as instructed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en couldn't help but smirk as he sensed the waters of the harbor become disturbed due to the presence of roughly a hundred little traitors.

Though, traitor wasn't the right word, as you had to be loyal to something to betray it. Truthfully, none of the half-bloods were loyal, not even the ones from Camp Half-Blood. They weren't _loyal_ to Olympus—they weren't defending Olympus because they loved the gods, they were doing it because the world and their lives were at stake. Their parents were just a bonus.

Most of the demigods in Kronos' army had been picked up from the streets, brainwashed into thinking their parents were evil, brainwashed by their siblings, by monsters, and by other divinities. Most of them were, for lack of a better word, _lost_.

Still, this was more a war of opinions than a war of facts. This wasn't so cut and dry like WWII, in which it was easy to rationalize who the enemy was. This war was being fought by hurting children who just wanted their parents to show some affection, show that they cared and they were loved, and they were commanded by leaders who thought they could do better.

Like Shin'en said: a war of opinions.

But none of that mattered, because he allowed the demigods to reach the mainland, and they were currently on a fast march to the Williamsburg. He could've killed them all right now. The storm still swelled and the sky still teemed with his chakra, and all it would take was a signal to send down more Kirin's or Gale jutsu…

…but that wasn't the plan.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Alabaster C. Torrington was Kronos' commander of the demigods. Young and inexperienced though he may have been, he had a good grasp of swordsmanship, leadership, and spellcasting. His siblings made the bulk of the demigod force, though when it was a diverse force of children of Olympians and minor gods alike, making the bulk wasn't saying much.

Anyway, even will all the spells and enchantments he had siblings were using, like protections against all manner of threats, detections for all manner of threats, and preventions for all manner of threats, he was still surprised to have made it across the harbor, and was surprised further when he and his crossed the Williamsburg without opposition.

"Uh, what now?" asked a son of Demeter.

"Contact Lord Kronos and tell him we made it across the bridge, and ask if we should press forward or wait to be reinforced."

"Got it!"

Not even a full minute later, the demigods had their orders: attack.

And attack they did. Literally setting off in a sprint, they raced through the streets of Manhattan, a force of a hundred demigods all storming the Empire State Building. From the Williamsburg to the elevator was an hour in change on foot, twenty minutes on wheels, but for demigods running on top speed, demigods using magic to enhance themselves, it took less than ten minutes.

They found _him_ waiting for them.

He was calmly leaning against a parking meter, smoking. His eyes opened, and there was a flash of red.

"No one look at his eyes!" Alabaster screamed. Heads jerked down, but were raised just enough to see _his_ body, everything from the neck down, so everyone saw him brandish a finger at them.

"You've made your choice, and now you're all going to die with it."

Weapons were drawn but it made no difference.

Shin'en descended into their midst, and the screaming started.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Strewn about the front steps and down the street were the bodies of the recently deceased, broken, armor dented and ripped apart. Shin'en felt not a thing for any of them. They made the decision to pick a side, and he was on the opposite. Nothing more, nothing less.

Shin'en had stopped the rain, but he left the sky its sickly green.

He heard sniffling, and he didn't need to turn around to know that there were two children left alive. A boy and a girl, twins, ironically, children of Apollo by the look of them. They couldn't be any more than ten.

The boy was crying into his sister's chest, and she looked at Shin'en with imploring eyes. "We…we only wanted to make our daddy know we were alive…we just wanted to see him."

Shin'en finally turned, and his eyes glowed like distant vats of melted material. "I know, and I don't care. No survivors."

His eyes increased in brightness, and the little twins' scream echoed through the empty city.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I'll leave it on that note.**_

 _ **Also, I want to bring attention to my feelings about this story. To me,**_ **Backup Plan** _ **is more than seinen**_ **PJO** _ **. There's philosophy to it, ideology, conflicts that are real. I feel that it's bigger than entertainment, but that's just me. I believe it's generally understood that I'm crazy and insane, so eh.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	5. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 5

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 5_

 _ **Nice, triple-digits in all categories with just four chapters. Moving right along like freshly greased wheels.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I do not own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Something feels wrong, brother," Hyperion said. "There's a feeling in the air, like we're playing into a trap."

"Agreed."

"Allow me to go in your stead, for now. Allow me to spring this trap that Shin'en has laid for us."

Kronos hummed, mulling it over for but the briefest of moments. "Very well, then, brother. Go forth, and do battle with our enemy."

Hyperion nodded, grinning. He reached behind him and produced his red stone. "Here. I need no such pathetic mineral to beat a baby."

"If that is your state of mind, then I will not doubt it. Thank you, brother." Kronos accepted Hyperion's red stone, and the Titan Lord of the East vanished in a flash of light.

The Crooked One opened his hand, revealing his stone and his brothers'. Plural, yes, for Krios had been an arrogant fool, and had done what Hyperion had just done, and gave up his stone. So, now Kronos had three red stones of power.

"Prometheus, did you ever intend to fight? What am I saying—you're not a fighter in the first place. Give me your stone."

The Titan of Forethought did as instructed, and now Kronos had four red stones. In the command tent of his new basecamp, the Titan of Time, ordered those inside to leave, letting be alone. He grasped the stones in his fist, and called _through_ them.

' _Jashin. I would like an audience with thee.'_

Not a second later, he felt the god's presence in his tent.

Jashin looked as Kronos remembered, wearing the red long coat, the red hat, the charcoal suit, and the big orange glasses with the dots next to the bridge, giving a cross-eyed visage. Jashin was grinning widely, exposing the twin rows of perfectly white, perfectly straight teeth, the canines longer than usual for mortals.

"Scary, isn't it?" the deep voice of the God of Pain reverberated through the tent. "The prospect of defeat after so many centuries of planning."

"Indeed, it is."

"I see my gifts are performing as expected. Two of your family rejecting them based on the belief that they are strong enough without them, another giving it up willingly because he lacks the spine for combat, and another not even getting a chance to use his."

"And the one that did use the stone still ended up dead."

"Of course, Atlas was defeated. One doesn't fight Shin'en and expect to win based on the sole reasoning that you're now stronger than him. If he is lacking in strength, he'll make up for it with intelligence. Outmatching him in games of wit and power are difficult, and haven't ever been accomplished."

Kronos' eyes narrowed. "Then how does one defeat that which cannot be outmatched? You came to me offering gifts because you wanted to make things more interesting, but if the nature of things is that one will become powerful, and then the other will become even more powerful, and they will simply hit each other until is defeated, how is that interesting?"

"You have to have a mind like mine to appreciate the entertainment value of such events, but I see where you're coming from. Now, to business." Jashin lost his smile. "You have two main choices before you: keep all of the stones for yourself, or give three of them to me, in which I will use them to even the odds."

Golden eyes narrowed further. "You said that Shin'en can't be beaten with power and wit alone. What will you do that will even the odds?"

"Emotionally destabilize him," Jashin grinned.

"How so?"

The God of Pain chuckled. "Oh, it's not hard. For all his tremendous power, Shin'en really is just a hurting little boy with really bad abandonment issues, who needs a real big hug and a long heart to heart with his big sissy. Give me the three stones, Kronos. I grow bored with these proceedings."

Frowning, the Titan King held out his hand, and three of the red stones glowed and floated from his palm. Jashin grinned and held out his own hand, the stones gravitating to him. When they were within reach, they all glowed painfully bright, and there was a sound like thunder. The light blinked out and when his ears stopped ringing, Kronos looked at what Jashin had done, and his jaw fell open.

And then three voices boomed at once.

" _Too far!"_

To Kronos' further shock, the Fates themselves melted out of the shadows, all of them looking none too happy.

"We allowed you to taint one of our dimensions with your progeny," Clotho said.

"We allowed you to give the Titans the red stones," Lachesis said.

"We will _not_ allow you to do _this_!" Atropos thundered.

"Ain't that a damn shame…" heads whipped around to this new voice, and this time, _everyone_ was shocked, even Jashin, for he looked to have been ready to fight the Fates over what he had done.

This new arrival was rather unimpressive, being a 5'6 teenage boy that looked anywhere between seventeen and twenty-five. It was hard to tell with the facial hair. He was wearing a black dry-fit polo, black cargo shorts, black Nike shoes, and black Nike tube socks, rolled down. His hands were in his pockets and he was standing casually. No, while not an impressive visage, it was the eyes that belayed who this person truly was.

Black eyes, _pure_ black eyes with no pupils, iris, or sclera, but there were _stars_. This being's eyes were literal reflections of the Milky Way Galaxy.

"…C-Chaos…" Clotho muttered.

"Correct. Anyway, back to what I was saying," his mouth wasn't moving, but his voice was heard like it was moving. "It's a damn shame that you won't allow Jashin to do what he just did, because I will." Chaos' voice lowered. "I would've thought you learned that when I ordered you to kill your pet…"

The Fates shared a look, then they looked back at _the_ Greek deity. "Uh, what?"

"Out of place _Pirates of the Caribbean_ reference. Though not too out of place, considering the context is that it's one person telling another person, the other being perceived as superior but is actually submissive the first person, to _heel_." Chaos' eyes glimmered. "My authority over all things _Percy Jackson_ trumps yours, daughters of Nyx…or is it Zeus and Themis? Or Ananke? There's so many iterations I find myself forgetting what the truth is."

The Fates shared another look, trying to figure out what exactly that meant.

"Oh, quit thinking too hard on it, girls. I'm lamenting how there's too much in the Multiverse anymore."

"Uh…" Kronos uttered.

Chaos turned to him and suddenly the Titan felt very small. "Shut it, boy. I can blink and send your ass to Tartarus…and then I can blink again and erase Tartarus."

Kronos didn't know what to say to that, but he suddenly felt like everything he was aspiring to accomplish was meaningless and empty and didn't mean a thing, and those feelings made him question the point of everything he was doing, like it wouldn't have an effect on anything.

Granted, seeking to be a king while in the presence of God would make any man feel like his goals were pointless.

"Here is what is going to happen," Chaos said. "Jashin's machinations will be allowed to pass, but no further interference will be tolerated. You three will back off and shut up, and _you_ are going to get your ass back to the Shinto-verse, and if you come to my world unsanctioned again, I'll Fade your ass, got it?"

Jashin just faded from view.

Chaos look back at Kronos. "As you were, little turd."

There was a distant explosion that toppled most of Manhattan, sending skyscrapers plummeting, flattening a mile in all directions. The Titan instantly invoked his divine power, erecting a shield around his forces just as the blast wave and the veritable mountain of debris came crashing over.

When the shaking settled, Chaos commented offhandedly, "Well, there goes Hyperion." He looked down at what Jashin had brought. "You'd better get her in place."

Kronos blinked, and Chaos was gone. That left him and Jashin's final gift alone in the tent, and the Titan had to say: the morsel before him would have been a delightful replacement for Rhea, but he needed her for something far more pressing than bed-warming.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **(Relax. Like I would skip out on the fight between Shin'en and Hyperion.)**_

 _Earlier_

The Abyss had taken residence on one of the eagles of the Empire State Building, content to wait ever since his fight with the demigods. He didn't have to wait long, not even thirty minutes, before the next sub-battle began.

Rising to his feet, Shin'en stepped off the eagle, plummeting all the way to the ground. He landed with crater-inducing force, splintering concrete and asphalt. He hadn't bothered with moving the bodies, for they weren't in his way.

There was a flash of light, and Shin'en stood ten feet away from the Titan Hyperion.

It seemed the Lord of the East had been reading comics, for he chose to take an appearance like that of his character in _Marvel_. Hyperion wore a black body suit that left his arms bear, golden boots with golden shin guards, both radiating heat. Around his groin and lower navel was what could be most easily described as metal briefs, gold, and intricately carved with scenes of battles long past. He wore no cape, thank God, and instead opted for golden shoulder pads that would've had any football star drooling.

Hyperion chose to be six and a half feet tall, and well-built.

Shin'en was waiting for the day when he met a divinity that chose to be short and lanky, just to trick people.

"Before we begin, do you have a red stone that you can use to power up? Because if you do, can you please use it in order to skip the nonsense."

Hyperion smirked. "I need no such trinket to defeat you, demigod."

"Krios said the same thing. He's dead now."

"Oh, I know. I saw it happen."

Shin'en cocked a brow.

The Titan smiled. "I have been affected by the mortals the same way Krios was. Back then, light was but a means to see, something to banish the dark. Now, light is a speed, light is a spectrum, there are many kinds of light, and all of them fall under my power. For example: I know when I'm looking at a clever little trick of the light made by refracting light waves through water droplets in the air. I can also feel light waves, like red waves, black waves, the same kind of wavelengths that come from your cloak."

Hyperion suddenly vanished in a flash and instantly reappeared ten feet away from he was standing. He moved so fast the first flash hadn't even faded before the second burst forth.

"Lightspeed reflexes, little baby half-blood. I'm faster than your white wind."

Shin'en faded into view, cancelling his power over the water refracting light around him so as to become invisible. Beneath his collar, he was scowling. This was a problem he had never foreseen coming. An opponent that could move at the literal speed of light. Three hundred _million_ meters a _second_. Not only that, this opponent could read light waves, making any attempts at illusion a joke.

So, how to handle Hyperion…brute force wasn't going to work, as the Titan literally couldn't be caught, as he would either speed away or make himself like light: intangible. He could try Sharingan, but the Sharingan required eye contact, the transmitting of light waves, and if the demigods knew not to look in his eyes, then Hyperion surely knew that as well. So, no genjutsu with the eyes.

"And don't even think of looking me in the eye. All I have to do is bend the light waves and it so that I'm looking at your forehead the whole time."

There was also that fact.

So, Shin'en ruled out genjutsu, ninjutsu, taijutsu, kenjutsu, and all manner of direct means of combat. That left but one branch of jutsu left in his repertoire, and that branch required time and planning. Planning he was already handling, the time part was the problem.

"Hopeless, isn't it, baby demigod?" Hyperion laughed. "I can see it in your eyes, the wheels turning behind them, trying to grind out a plan of attack, a strategy, only for all them to come up short against the light. You can't hit me, for I'm too fast. You can't run from me, for I'll catch you. You cannot fight, and you cannot retreat. I have you in checkmate. Surrender now, and Kronos might have mercy on you."

"Mercy?"

"Yes, instead of torturing you and making you watch as he rapes your beloved sister, he'll simply make _you_ his new wife, and make it so that you can bear him children. Mpreg is a popular trope nowadays."

"…I think I'll pass."

Hyperion shook his head in mock disappointment. "Such a shame. Oh well, I guess that means I can beat you with my bare hands now." He cracked his knuckles and took a stance. "Get ready to feel the wrath of the light."

"Wrong again."

Hyperion tilted his head confusion, and in that momentary instance of Delay, Shin'en acted. He did not attack, nor did he run, nor did he set up a defense. Instead, with a single Seal hidden in the length of his sleeve, he made no less than a thousand Shadow Clones, all of them sticking to the sides of the skyscrapers. Hyperion observed and scoffed.

The Shadow Clones scattered, and the Titan vanished, moving at the speed of light. There was no destructive trail behind him, for if there had been, the planet would have been shredded at something his size moving at the speed of light across its surface. Perks of being the Titan of Light included the divine ability to make physics kiss his ass.

Moving that fast, Hyperion ripped through each Shadow Clone and reappeared in his original spot, all in less than a literal second. The cloud of smoke annoyed him, and so he swiped his arm, dispelling the obscurity. That's when he noticed Shin'en was missing. Hyperion just smirked, and connected to the light. It went without saying that everything the light touched became known to him.

Hyperion frowned. He couldn't find Shin'en.

 _You are a fool, Titan of the East._

Hyperion whipped around with a shout, releasing a blast of power that ripped down the street, tearing a trench through the asphalt.

 _It's true._

Hyperion whipped about again. "What is this!? Show yourself, coward!"

 _It's true,_ the disembodied voice of Shin'en reverberated from everywhere, distorted and strange, _you did have me on the ropes there for a little bit, as I couldn't think of any effective methods of combatting you, but then I thought of one._

 _You are the Titan of Light, able to see what the light sees. So, then, since I cannot hide from the gaze of the light, it makes sense to go where the light does not go._

Hyperion gasped. "The shadows…" Immediately, hundreds of spheres of radiance burst from the Titan, and began to shoot through the dark city…the _dark city_. Only now did Hyperion realize that the sky had lost its sickly green pallor, and was now pitch black, the blanket of clouds blocking the starlight and the moonlight. Still, the light orbs raced through the alleys and streets, direct extensions of Hyperion's will.

 _Oh, don't bother. Your lights won't find me, nor will your senses. I've spent years learning to hide from the most acute and determined individuals. You are not among them._

"How are you _speaking_ to me?"

 _Sounds are made by vibrations of air, vibrations that make our eardrums move and send signals to our brains. The water in the air, Hyperion. I can make it dance to the tune I want it to, and the tune I want it to play is my voice. Perhaps you would like something else? How about this iconic song from teen sensation, Justin Bieber?_

Hyperion's eyes went bloodshot as a cadence of "baby, baby oh~" blasted in his ear. He fell to his knees and screamed obscenities.

 _Yes, it is rather grating on the nerves. How about some smooth jazz, then? As an apology, of course._

And then Hyperion was treated to the slow, soothing sound of saxophones and trumpets. The Titan sighed in relief, and then tuned into his lights, frowning when they found nothing.

 _You are powerful, Hyperion, just like Krios, but where Krios pissed me off, you gave me time to think of a way to beat you. Once again, the pride and arrogance of the Titans is their downfall._

"You haven't beaten me yet, baby demigod."

 _Oh, I have, you just haven't realized it yet._

"What are talking about?"

Instead of answering, the disembodied voice instead asked thus, _Do you know what it more powerful than light? It's quite the question, really, when you consider that light travels at three hundred million meters a second, and carries with it beautiful images of the distant past, and is emitted by extremely hot celestial bodies. So, I ask again: what is more powerful than light?_

Hyperion whipped around, scowling. His lights had covered the whole of the island, every back alleyway and every nook, cranny, niche, and street, and he still hadn't found the demigod. He expanded his range, going beyond Manhattan.

"What _is_ more powerful than light, then?"

 _Gravity._

Hyperion was yanked to the ground so hard he screamed, and then his scream turned into one of agony. He was pulled into the ground, his body being crushed by the force. Beneath him glowed a series of sigils he didn't recognize, but if he had knowledge of Sealing Jutsu, he would know that was an Uzumaki creation used to increase bodily strength by increasing the gravity of the chosen area.

With the amount of chakra in the sealing formula, Hyperion was experience gravity a thousand times that of Earth.

An explanation is in order: see, when Shin'en had made the Shadow Clones, he hadn't made them with the intent of a swarm attack, or a mass scattering that Hyperion would have to track down. He made them knowing the Titan would attack them all, and, in the ensuing cloud of smoke, Shin'en dove into the nearest alleyway, into the shadows, out of the light.

It had been a gamble on his part that Hyperion couldn't see into the shadows, but it was a gamble that had paid off, and it was a simple matter of baiting Hyperion to stretch his awareness. The orbs of light had been a small surprise, but one easily handled by simply Transforming into a small animal and hiding under a truck. Hyperion's arrogance prevented him from double checking everywhere, firm in the knowledge that there was no way he could have missed something.

But he had, and just as Shin'en had used the water in the air to project his voice, so too did he use the water to dampen his sounds. Then, he set about reading the kunai with the appropriate Sealing tags, and placing them in the desired locations. It was easy to slip around the Titan, and all he had to do to get Hyperion to turn around to where he needed to go was by simply altering the direction of the false sounds.

Then, it was a Hand Seal, and the application of chakra to produce the results.

The gravity seal glowed dangerously, as it was close to overloading from the amount of chakra being put into it, and Hyperion continued screaming as his body was being crushed from his own sudden weight. There was external damage, like the concrete buckling or the buildings bending. The only area of effect was directly on top of the seal's area.

Shin'en grimaced, the strain of keeping the seal active with how much gravity it was using taking a toll on his chakra.

And then Hyperion's shouting took on a different tone, not one of pain, but one of effort.

"I…AM THE TITAN…OF _POWER_!"

Shin'en's eyes widened, and he bailed out as fast as he could, and just in time. Hyperion became like a supernova, expelling a wave of energy that was bright like a star, and powerful like a celestial explosion. Manhattan was lit up and flattened. The skyscrapers were bent inwards, their frames buckling, and then they were blown away. Hyperion's rampant power washed over the whole island, knocking down every skyscraper, mowing through every apartment complex, and chewing through ever obstacle for a mile radius.

The easiest description was that it had been like Pain's Almighty Push, only instead of a wave of invisible outward force, it had been a shining dome of expanding destruction.

Curiously enough, there wasn't any kind of crater, only flat, scorched ground and a distant ring of mountainous rubble.

Hyperion laid on hands and knees, body aching, and his power drained. It had taken much more than what he had thought possible to break out of the gravity bind, draining him of well over three-fourths of his given power, but he had succeeded, and he still had power to spare.

He heard whirring, and looked up to see a spinning disc of something coming for him. As tired as he was, he smirked and decided to wait for the dramatic effect of dodging at the last moment. As fast as that thing was, it wasn't moving faster than sound, and he could move three hundred million meters in a second. He had time.

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

Wait a little longer… _aaaaaand-NOW!_

Hands erupted from the ground right beneath Hyperion, reaching out and grabbing his wrists. The Titan was so surprised by that happening that the spinning blade was able to just nibble at his neck, before he put on the jets and bolted out in a flash of light. Instinctive reflex had guided his actions, and he had sped right into the air, shooting directly up in the dark clouds where he couldn't see.

Gravity took hold and he came falling through the clouds, clouds that he could not see through, clouds that dampened his awareness, for these were not _just_ clouds, but these were clouds laced with the same kind of molded chakra used for the Hidden Mist Jutsu. Hyperion did not realize this, and so-

 _SCHING_

He fell right through blade of the extended sword, cutting himself in half from head to toe.

The two halves of Hyperion went flaming to ground, burning to embers before they hit the thousand-foot mark, and the embers burned to nothing soon after.

Back on the ground, Shin'en retracted the blade of his sword, having extended by 2000 feet to give him the maximum range of killing Hyperion. The explosion of power had been unexpected, but unwelcome. Using a Shadow Clone and the Headhunter Jutsu, he had set up the surprise, and with the Transformation Jutsu he had thrown himself disguised as a sword. Predicting Hyperion's instinctual reaction had been easy, and even easier to capitalize on, and the clouds were still laced with Shin'en's chakra, as it had never dissipated, so he could still mold the sky to his desire.

Whew, the city was gone, leaving flat ground for a mile in all directions, which also meant that the Empire State Building was down, which meant the elevator to and from Olympus was now inoperable.

Now Persephone and Annabeth couldn't come down here and put themselves in danger.

Shin'en felt the water behind him fluctuate, and he heard the telltale sound of someone materializing out of the water vapor. A female with blood disturbingly close to his own. In fact, the only difference between this person's DNA and his own was a single chromosome. She had chakra, a lot of it, and the feel of her chakra was frighteningly close to his own.

He turned around to see her stab her staff into the ground, and lean on it. She pulled a cigarette and lighter from within her Akatsuki cloak, lit the former, and put the later back in her cloak. She took a drag and exhaled towards the sky. Still looking up, she cracked open an eye, and emerald green met emerald green.

"A female me," Shin'en mused. "Now I've see everything."

"Have you seen a man eat his own head?"

Shin'en blinked. "No."

"Then you haven't seen everything."

Shin'en blinked again at his female counterpart, and decided to move on. "Did you take the name Shin'en too?"

She nodded. "I did, but for the sake of the immediate future, just call me Perci with an "I."

"Sounds like a stripper's name."

"Fuck you."

"I'd rather not. Would that be incest or selfcest?"

Perci shrugged. "We'll leave it to the fanfic authors to figure that out."

"The fanfic authors," Shin'en mused. The mirth evaporated in an instant though. "If you're here then that means that someone did something, and the only way for you to get back to your dimension is to kill me, isn't that right?"

Perci took the cigarette and put it out on her neck. "Pretty much. No hard feelings?"

"Not at all."

And then Shin'en gained a sad look, and Perci gained that same sad look. They were one and the same, after all, with the same memories, experiences, philosophies, powers, and mindsets. Perci had her own family, her own big sister that she loved very much. She was in the middle of that one year Shin'en had promised Persephone two years ago on Christmas, that promised one year of spending time in this world.

Perci had actually been asleep, being cradled by her sister in the most comfortable bed she had ever been in, when she had a dream of Jashin, and then she woke up with instructions in her head: kill _him_ , and she could go back.

Perci's eyes hardened. She had a sister to return to, and this person, while her in another life, was still a stranger, and she could see the same sentiment in his eyes.

But the reality was, regardless of the outcome, someone's family was going to be irreparably destroyed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Do anything, any of you, and I'll chain you to the vilest pit of Yomi I can find," Izanagi said to the gathered gods in his hall.

"But Father-" Susano'o tried.

"But nothing, child. They are going to fight to the death, and regardless of who wins, that is one less Shin'en in my realm. One less nuisance to worry about."

The Storm God scowled, but he sat and did nothing, for there was nothing he could do. Izanagi was not like Zeus, and the rest of them were not like the Olympians. They couldn't just up and do something, go behind Izanagi's back. It wasn't that simple. Nor would Izanagi be merciful _when_ he caught them.

And so, with heavy hearts, the Shinto gods forced contentment upon themselves, and did nothing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In a world between worlds, Chaos was joined by Erebus.

"We are in for quite the show, Father."

"Indeed, we are. Who do you think will win?"

"Father," Erebus stated dryly.

"True, true. Anyone with half a brain can figure out the outcome of this battle, but even so…just because you know where and what Point B is, doesn't mean you know what lies between it and Point A. That's how we get parallel dimensions and alternate timelines."

Erebus didn't say anything, and merely looked at the view of the proceedings.

This would certainly be a sight to bear witness to.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **So, how is that for a twist? I have got two more planned, and I hope both of them keep the story interesting.**_

 _ **How was the fight with Hyperion? I agree that a super powered smack down can get dull, and the way that I set Hyperion up made a smack down rather impossible, baring Shin'en using**_ _ **Izanagi**_ _ **to make himself either faster than light, or to make himself able to take away divine powers at will. To avoid that, I chose to make it a strategic fight, using wit and intelligence.**_

 _ **Think Batman.**_

 _ **Anyway, Shin'en vs Perci next chapter.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	6. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 6

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 6_

 _ **Bringing in Perci was generally well-received, and I hope the coming fight will be as well.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They had decided what they were to each other the moment they met: they were siblings. With that question out the way, they got down to business. Perci had her own sister to get back to, and she needed to kill Shin'en to do that, and Shin'en had a war to win and a sister to keep safe.

Yes, both of them realized that if they put their heads together hard enough they could find a way out of this without bloodshed, but time wasn't a luxury they had. They both knew Typhon was coming, and they both knew Kronos and his army were out there waiting on the edge. If the gods were going to have done something, gods as in Chaos and Izanagi, or Erebus and Susano'o, they would've done their thing already, and this entire situation would've blown over by now.

As it hadn't, the siblings from across dimensions resolved to fight to the death because they both had things very dear to them that they couldn't afford to lose.

Shin'en struck first. The inside of his sleeves glowed, and three dozen streams of laser came arcing out. The Gale Style: Laser Circus, performed wordlessly and without Seals, raced after Perci, who had grabbed her sword and dashed off. The lasers were fast, but she was faster. After gaining good enough distance, she pushed off her foot and took to flight, soaring a meter over the ground. She turned and flipped upside down, arms pointed. Her own sleeves glowed, and with precision born from the Sharingan and her own reflexes, she shot a counter volley of laser.

The twin Gale Style techniques met head to head, and exploded on contact. Shin'en dashed out of the smoke cloud with enough force behind him to dispel said cloud, and he too was soaring a meter above the ground from nothing but force alone. Perci flipped upright, and put a leg down. Her foot met the earth and began to drag through it, ripping a trench.

The friction slowed her down and Shin'en met her. They both came to a dead stop, Perci's feet digging into solid concrete. In their left hands were their swords, and their right hands were free. Through this combination, their arms were deadlocked.

They glared at each other and bared their teeth, their red eyes glowing brightly as they both spun into the nine-pointed star of their Mangekyou. Trying to put either under genjutsu was pointless, as they'd both see through whatever the other tried, and trying to use Vapor Illusions was also pointless, as both could sense the water in each other's body.

Shin'en's right leg and Perci's left both shot up at the same time, and they kicked each other away. They ripped their swords out of their respective sheaths at the same time in perfect synchronization, and the transcendental arcs of cutting force shot past each other at a hairsbreadth distance. The ground was carved up, and the siblings liquefied.

They were both split in half, but in their watery state, they instantly melded back together with no damage. The arcs continued before they lost enough driving force and dissipated quietly.

"This'll get us nowhere fast," Perci scowled.

"Agreed. Let's mix things up." And then, humongous black wings sprouted from Shin'en's back and spread wide. Satori's wings, for those that forgot.

Perci actually looked surprised, and then she smirked. Shin'en took to the air with a single mighty flap, shooting high enough to where he could feel the brimming energy of the wind gods defending Olympus. He raised a hand above him, and a glowing orb of energy that wasn't chakra fluttered to life and expanded to the size of a moose. He thrust his hand down, and the orb shot for the earth.

Out of Perci's back, a trio of armored, canine-like heads emerged, bursting through her cloak, each connected to a muscular tendril. The Three-Heads, for those that forgot.

Each mouth opened wide and glowed with pink energy, before a triplet beam of chakra shot forth, and met the Paradise Bomb head-on. The sky lit up in the explosion and the ground trembled. Perci didn't need her eyes for what came next, because she could feel Shin'en shooting through the air, disturbing the water vapor.

Another Paradise Bomb came at her, and when she shot it out of the sky, she sent a pulse of chakra through the ground around her, looking for something. She found them, all thirteen of them, Shadow Clones that had been hidden in a previous battle and were now lying in wait for an ambush, Shin'en's strategy being to use the Paradise Bombs to try and herd her to the Clones.

Shin'en must have correctly figured that she had figured him out, because all of the Shadow Clones burst from the ground at once and attacked. Perci scowled, because this wasn't going to be easy…and then she scolded herself for the brain fart, and made her own Shadow Clones to even the numbers.

Before anything else happened, all of Shin'en's Shadow Clones poofed away, returning the chakra they were made of to him, and Perci blinked. Then she and her Clones all turned their jutsu to the skies, all of them using Laser Circus to attack from every angle they could get to.

Shin'en scowled at this development. Truthfully, he thought Perci would dispel her Clones as well, but like he always said: always have a backup plan.

The streams of chakra all came at him at once, and with no viable routes of escape, there being no holes in the veritable net of lasers, he was left with but one option: defense.

The was once again graced with an explosion that seemed to make it day.

Perci dispelled her Shadow Clones, smiled slightly at the warm tingling that came with having one's chakra regenerated like that, but she quickly became serious again. In the sky, the explosion faded, and what was left was an emerald warrior in Roman-like armor, and at its heart was Shin'en, wings still extended.

Perci tilted her head. _'Never thought that was possible.'_ She shrugged. "I'll raise." And then she was surrounded by her own Susano'o. It was the exact same as Shin'en's, so no point in describing it.

With a flap of his wings, he raced towards Perci, and she braced herself. However, no amount of bracing would ever prepare someone for what basically amounted to a freight train being dropped on you from the tip of Mt. Everest. Shin'en slammed into her and buried her thirty feet into the ground with a booming clap of thunder, sending tons of rock and dust into the air as he made a new crater in the land.

Perci shot her Susano'o's fist forward, nailing Shin'en's in the face, sending him flying off her with another clap of thunder. He righted in midair, and came down on his feet with a crash. Perci leapt from her hole, landing with a crash as well, both impacts cracking the ground at their feet. After a brief look at each other, they charged, fists reared back, feet shattering the ground beneath them.

When close, they punched each other in the face, and what happened next was the same thing that happened when Hashirama and Madara fought, when Naruto and Sasuke fought, when Shin'en and Naruko fought. It was the same thing that happened when two exceptionally powerful chakras met, and there was an exchange of memories, of feeling, and through that exchange came the one thing the siblings did not want:

Understanding of the other.

Pained looks crossed their faces when the memory ran through their mind's eye, and their personal variations of it were experienced by their opposite. When the memory faded, another look was shared, and they resolved themselves once again to kill the other.

The Epirus Bow materialized in Shin'en's hands, and Perci conjured her Aegis Shield. The bowstring was pulled and the arrow fired, the shield raised and the projectile hit it, exploding. More arrows were fired, and the Aegis held. When the blast cloud got big enough, Perci dashed out, shield raised.

The bow vanished and was replaced by a monstrous gladius, and the other arm became adorned with a shield. Perci conjured her own sword, and then the two were even. Sword and shield.

Shin'en struck with a jab that was knocked away by Perci's shield, the shockwave racing off to the side to split the ground apart. Perci attacked with an overhead slash, but Shin'en brought his own shield up, blocking the blade. The transfer of forces splintered the ground at the Susano'o's feet.

Acting quickly, Shin'en reversed the grip on his sword, and slashed upward, sending Perci staggering backward, a line marring her Susano'o from mid waist through the shoulder. However, where there was visible damage to Perci, Shin'en's sword had cracked slightly, so the siblings both had their respective "injuries."

Perci scowled, and the she rushed. Shin'en readied himself, putting his shield in front of him, cocking his sword back, tip forward. To his surprise, Perci _threw_ her gladius, and he deflected it with his shield, and Perci hit the ground in a slide. With the bulk of the Susano'o Shin'en could not maneuver himself adequately, and while he did move, he did not move all the way out the way, and his balance was taken from him.

He fell to his back with a thud, the impact jarring him just enough to impair his reaction. As such, when he saw Perci's sword coming down, instead of reacting in time to roll away, he moved his shield over his Susano'o's torso. The blade met the shield, and the world erupted.

Blinding lights shot in all directions, and horrendous screeching dominated all sounds for ten miles. The unstoppable force that was a Susano'o's sword met the immovable object that was the chakra construct's shield, and like when every time these two entities met, they surrendered.

But not without a spectacular sendoff.

The Susano'o's were dispelled in the blast for it was so powerful, and a new crater was hammered into the surface of the earth, one that was several dozen feet deep, and several thousand feet wide. The mushroom cloud of smoke and dust billowed up past Olympus, and Kronos was growing annoyed with having to constantly shield himself and his forces from shockwaves, soundwaves and blast waves. It was taxing on him, especially because he was already spending sizeable amounts of power in altering the flow of time around the Manhattan area.

"My lord," one cyclops complained. "Why do we wait here instead of attacking? Those two are so busy with themselves that they would not notice us using the entrance to Olympus, which is still there even though the mortal's tower is gone."

The cyclopes was right in that the entrance was still there, even without the elevator. A thin, unnoticeable (unless you had good enough Sight) beam of very faint golden energy was rising from the ground and heading right up to Olympus. It would be easy to use with the Shin'ens occupied, but there was a small problem with trying to take it by force.

"Very good points Mister Cyclopes. However, that portal you refer to is small, and only a few loyal soldiers such as yourself could make it through at a time, and the demigod forces of Camp Half-Blood along with the Hunter of Artemis are up there, and they would bottle neck the area. Any soldiers up there would be slaughtered instantly. The second problem is the fact that we can't get close enough to the portal to actually use it, because of those two fighting."

Kronos might have sounded cordial and enlightening, but on the inside, he was bemoaning the intelligence of monsters, while also struggling not to kill them.

"Uh," the cyclopes scratched his head, "then shouldn't you go through the portal first, then? To take on the dinner-bloods?"

"Dinner-bloods" was the new term the monsters used for demigods nowadays.

Kronos slowly turned from his horse to look at the speaking monster, who gulped.

"Mister Cyclopes. I am well aware of what could be, what should be, and what would be. I do not need advice in tactics from _you_. If I could do that, I would've done so by now. Like this army, I cannot get close. For now, we'll simply have to wait until someone dies."

"Yes, sir."

The cyclopes lumbered off, and Kronos was left wondering: what did he need this army for, again?

Back in the crater, the siblings were left grasping their heads. The connecting of their chakra just now, with such intensity, and sent torrents of each other's feelings and memories through that link, but not only was there a link of feelings and memories, there was a link to the mind, and inside either siblings' mind was eight other people.

Sachiko, Saeko, Shin, Kimiko, Gatou, Hiyumi, Amon, and Nanako.

The eight split personalities created during the Blood War, either through overacting, or extreme stress.

All eight of them had made a mad dash for the surface, all of them attempting to get out of the prison that was their main personality's head. Not all of them were hostile and wanted to go on a rampage, most were actually just desperate for freedom and fresh air, but none of them could be allowed out, not without strict supervision. In the heat of a battle, strict supervision could not be handled properly, and so Perci and Shin'en, on top of battling the backlash of someone else's memories, also battled eight people into submission with nothing more than force of will.

It was taxing but they managed.

"Alright," Perci groaned. "No more chakra. No more touching. I'm not going through any more of that. I don't relive any of the Blood War for a reason, and so the last thing I'm going to do is put myself in a position where I'm forced to relive it."

"Agreed. Any ideas on how we're going to handle this, then?"

"I've got one idea."

Perci produced an object from her sleeve. At first glance, it was a fancy pocket watch, a big one, as it almost didn't fit in her palm. Around the cloak was a bird of prey, the head and beak being at the top of the watch, the wings encircling the watch. But Shin'en knew what that thing was.

The clock face suddenly peeled back, revealing a very large, purple eye that stared at him.

From Shin'en's sleeve, he produced an identical pocket watch. "You kept his, too."

"Of course I did," Perci said sadly. "Arashi's Karas armor. Although, I haven't ever used it, not even when going through that part of my life where I was damaged. Had no reason to, but now I do."

"As do I."

The clock face of Shin'en's pocket watch peeled open, and the eye therein glowed brilliantly, and did Perci's. They both tossed the pocket watches up, and they spun rapidly around, before the siblings snagged them, drew them back across their bodies, and then thrust them forward. Immediately before the watches sprung a Sealing circle that was slightly taller than the both of them.

The circle was pulled forward, dragging across the full length of their bodies. In the circle's wake, armor was left covering the body. The armor was streamlined, made of plates, and formfitting. After the circle was pulled all the way across, the siblings were left standing head to toe in armor that glowed and steamed as if pulled from the fire. In the hands that held the watches were now katanas, the watches imbedded in part of the sheath.

In synch, the siblings tossed the sheathes into the air and angled their bodies. The sheath came down on their backs and were locked in place. They both crouched low and drew their respective blades with a flourish. As the sleek metal cut through the air, a high-pitched whine followed.

The helmets over their heads covered their entire skull, with glowing emerald green optic lenses over their eyes.

The Uzumaki Karas armor.

In an unspoken signal, they both attacked, though not with their swords. Instead, the glowing Sealing circle appeared above them, and they both jumped through it, emerging from the other side as small, streamlined aircraft that shot straight into the night sky, Shin'en hot on Perci's ass.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I will not lie. I am embracing my inner fanboy right now. The Karas armor is taken straight from the anime**_ **Karas** _ **, and you can find clips and videos all over YouTube, so feel free to educate yourselves.**_

 _ **No, the Karas armor is not something I just made up. Yūrei is based on Night Raid from**_ **Akame ga Kill** _ **, and since Arashi is the parallel of Bulat, and Bulat has armor, and Arashi is an Uzumaki, and I like the anime**_ **Karas** _ **, I brought it all together in one package.**_

 _ **After Yūrei's death, Shin'en recovered Arashi's Karas armor, and this is the first time he's using it because he's never had any cause to use it.**_

 _ **The armor will have more information and lore about in future chapters.**_

 _ **Anyway, this is the shortest chapter yet, but eh. Sue me.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	7. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt 7

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Pt. 7_

 _ **Alright, seven Reviews…I will take the blame on that one for not making the chapter interesting enough for any thoughts to be typed out. Hopefully this chapter is more interesting and Review-worthy.**_

 _ **I also hope you all went out and YouTubed some**_ **Karas** _ **stuff, because I will not be going into any in-depth descriptions over armor, planes, cars or anything else.**_

 _ **There's also a twist in this chapter. A big one.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto or Karas

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Perci blazed through the black clouds, Shin'en hot on her tail. She swooped and swerved, and he followed without fail. Shin'en eventually got lined up, and unleashed a hail of laser fire. Perci strafed away, but a few shots clipped her tail wings, causing sparks to flash in the sky.

There had been some bite to that attack, and Perci had a good theory.

In the armor, their chakra was completely sealed within them. That wasn't to say it was locked away and inaccessible, it meant that they couldn't expel it from their bodies. They couldn't mold it to form jutsu, but nor could any of it leak from their body. No sensor-type ninja, not the best of them, could locate someone in the Karas armor.

When one wore the armor, all of their chakra was used in a purely physical manner, only increasing their strength and speed and durability, all of the chakra being absorbed by the armor's interior. As such, there was no worry about chakra clashing and meeting, which further meant that neither sibling had any fear of attacking the other and suffering a backlash of memories.

While they couldn't use their full destructive capability, they could hit each other really hard and shoot at each other with the weapons of the Karas armor. While the munitions of the aircraft configuration were unknown, as Arashi kept the full secrets of the armor to himself (thought it was suspected he didn't know either), they could shoot the other and not worry about chakra being transferred.

So Shin'en didn't hold back, and Perci intended to do the same…as soon as an opening presented.

She put more chakra into it, and rocketed forward, Shin'en following. He unleashed a volley of fire, missed every shot, though not by much, and rearranged trajectory ever so slightly. He fired again, missed again, and Perci shot forward with another burst, shooting so far ahead that she summoned the circle again, and transformed in her armored self. Shin'en copied, and they clashed in a flurry of swords, the last cut sending them both hurling from each other.

Shin'en summoned the circle, transforming back into an aircraft, and he began to fire at the open air. Perci weaved and spun, making it hard to hit her because of her small size and rapid movement. She summoned her own circle and transformed back into the aircraft, and shot up through the clouds, Shin'en following.

Perci went so high she flew past the cloud layer, right into the view of the full moon. She summoned the circle and transformed. Her legs were held together and her arms were spread wide. She sailed upward in that majestic pose before gravity took hold, and she sailed down, one leg curled, sword resting across her shoulder.

She fell straight down to Shin'en, and they traded blows. Sparks erupted between them, and they spiraled away from the other, and spiraled back. This time, they were able to fight more furiously, swords dancing around them in blurs, showers of sparks and a cadence of ringing metal accompanying their struggle. Faster and faster their attacks became, angrier, harder. They became so fast to one another they weren't sure if they were striking the other's armor or their sword, but Shin'en landed a blow with his leg, kicking Perci _hard_ upside her head.

Thoroughly dazed, she managed a slash across Shin'en's torso and kicked him away. Perci fell, head swimming, but not for long. She recovered and dove for the earth, summoning the circle and transforming into an aircraft again to gain the needed speed to get down there as fast as she could.

Shin'en shot after her, shooting recklessly, not that he anything to worry about as the only thing between him and the ground was air and Perci. Olympus was off to the side.

It was easier to dodge in a straight line, and Perci reached the earth without further harm, pulling up so as to not slam into her death. Strafing across the ground, she summoned the circle, and transformed into another configuration: a land vehicle that most closely resembled a car.

Shin'en kept soaring down, still firing. Perci raced across the scorched hellscape of what was once Manhattan, narrowly escaping being hit. She raced for the crater from when their Susano'o's had clashed, and just before she got there, she hit the brakes and spun, shooting into the crater in reverse.

The front of the car pointed up, and a series of compartments opened. Dozens of missiles shot out, trailing red smoke. Shin'en was coming down too fast and the missiles were going up too fast, but the son of Poseidon knew better. The glowing circle appeared before him and he entered, coming out in the armored form.

The eye lenses glowed emerald, and he weaved through all the incoming missiles with terrifying agility. After snaking through them, he noticed how they all wheeled back around and raced down after him. Flipping backwards, facing the missiles, Shin'en jammed the pommel of his katana into the opposite palm. A spike on his armor shot out, becoming a glowing harpoon attached to a chain. The harpoon slithered out at a breakneck pace, curling and striking. The harpoon speared the missiles, detonating them, while the chain curled to intercept anything the harpoon didn't get.

With near ease, Shin'en destroyed the volley of missiles, and he began to flip and spin midair, before slamming into the ground, cratering it. Perci blurred in front of him, swinging her sword. Shin'en blocked, but the force sent him flying. Midair, Perci attacked, but she was parried, grabbed and thrown to the ground. She impacted with crater-making force, and hopped away.

Shin'en pressed, landing and pushing off in an attack. He planted his foot, a microsecond away from slashing distance, and halted. Then he stepped and slashed, both hands on the hilt. Perci also had both hands on her blade, and parried. Shin'en brought his arms back around, and they exchanged blows in a flurry of indecipherable motion. They cut at each other with such speed that anyone from _Claymore_ would've been deeply impressed.

Sparks rained around them in a layer so thick they almost couldn't be seen.

Their blades finally slammed together in a deadlock, the shockwave dispelling the sparks and cracking the ground. They pressed against the other, hard, with everything they had in their armored bodies, and the blades began to glow red hot. They were the same height, so neither could use leverage, and, even thought they were boy and girl, their physical strength was even, so neither could out-muscle the other.

It came down to drive, then.

Perci was driven to return to her big sister, return to the one person she considered family, and return to her own ambitions, and get her answer from the blonde-haired boy who drove her insane with his touching naiveté. She had something to live for, and that gave her strength.

Shin'en's drive was similar. His own sister, his own ambitions, his own blonde-haired nuisance, but there was something more to him, something else that gave him the strength to push harder, push Perci back: Hatred.

Hatred born from jealousy.

Perci could feel it, too, and she knew why. She had what he wanted most. She had Persephone. She was in the middle of that promised one year, that one year in which she spent all the time she could with her big sister, and it _burned_ Shin'en that he didn't have that, regardless of the fact that he could have it given time.

Their swords pressed together so hard that the friction between them almost melted the blades.

With a grunt, Shin'en threw his arms up, breaking the lock, and he kicked, sending Perci flying back. He shot after her, but she summoned the sealing circle and turned into the aircraft. The thrusters fired, and Perci flew straight up, right at the edge of Olympus. Shin'en transformed and raced after her.

Whether the wind gods were on break, didn't see them as the same threat as the Titans' magic, or just did not want to get involved in the fight between the sea siblings, they allowed Perci and Shin'en to fly right into Olympian airspace.

It was the opposite side of the mountain from the elevator, so the half-bloods weren't in immediate danger.

Perci streaked through the city streets, tearing apart buildings and ripping the ground in her wake. Shin'en followed, but he was behind by just enough. A part of Perci's body unleashed a glowing harpoon that lodged itself in someone's temple, and she used that as an anchor point to turn in a sharp U. The chain ripped through the temple.

Turn complete, she dislodged the harpoon and drew it back in. She summoned the circle and turned into the car, braking and sliding into a drift. She let the back end go too far and she spun out, but that was planned. Directly in front of her was an alley, and she motored into the shadows.

Shin'en, having shot right past her because of her turn, had to take the long way around on account of there not being any temples for him to use to turn with until he got far enough to do so. Following her trail wasn't hard, though he was confused for but an instant when the property damage suddenly ended, but he saw the marks in the street. He summoned the circle and transformed into his own variation of the car.

He headed down the street, and was caught unaware when Perci came shooting out of the alley. She rear-ended him with all the force of a freight train, careening the both of them into a temple. She sped forward as the temple came down, leaving Shin'en to be buried. That wasn't the case for long, because, even as she drove away at a breakneck pace, she heard the roar of his engine and the sound of crumbling rocks.

She also heard the sound of him transforming, and then she heard the whoosh of the aircraft. At his speed, he shot right over her without meaning, and Perci used that moment to transform and go flying after him.

Now Shin'en was running from her.

Knowing somewhere like Olympus was not the place for an aerial dogfight, the son of Poseidon angled his nose to the west, and shot that way so fast that a cone of air formed around him, but so fast as to break the sound barrier. Perci angled after him, firing. The stream of shots scraped past him, impacting buildings or infrastructure, blowing up everything they came into contact with, or they missed and sailed away before losing form and fizzing out.

Shin'en spun and weaved, dodging all. He crested the edge of Olympus and shot down. He summoned the circle and transformed into the car configuration. He pulled the same trick Perci had pulled earlier, and unleashed a thick volley of missiles straight up.

Perci crested the edge, and so caught up in the chase was she that she failed to anticipate a coming barrage of missiles, and so when she did crest the edge, she got a face full of painful impact. The blast cloud was big enough to obscure part of Olympus, and Perci came sailing down, in armored form. Smoke trailed from her, but she was otherwise unharmed, if a little rattled.

But they were both getting impatient. The sun was due to rise very soon, and neither was any closer to killing the other than they were at the very beginning of this episode.

Perci rocketed towards the earth, landing with a monstrous crash. She heard a furious war cry, and raised her sword in time to block. Her arms stung, and it got worse when Shin'en went on the offensive, driving her back with his angry swings and slashes. Perci backpedaled and parried with amazing coordination and skill, despite the pain in her arms.

Even though they couldn't see each other's faces, Perci knew Shin'en's was one of abject fury, and Shin'en knew hers was one of frustrated pain. His rage and his jealousy was his fuel, and his chakra surged through him, strengthening his attacks, just as Perci was strengthening her defense.

He slashed, and this time she dodged away, counter slashing. Instead of trying to defend, he slashed again, and the two swords missed each other by a hairsbreadth, and cleaved into the other's armor. A glowing gash appeared and a shockwave sent both skidding away. They dug in their feet at stopped, and their Karas armor glowed before dispersing in a torrent of glowing feather. In their hands, in place of their swords, was their pocket watches, the eye dropping shut.

The armors had sustained too much damage, and neither sibling had enough chakra left to sustain the transformation.

Shin'en looked pissed. He didn't need to voice his reasons, they both knew why, even if they both admitted it was irrational. From his sleeve, after Sealing away the pocket watch, came a handful of shuriken, and he threw them all. Perci countered with her own handful of shuriken, the deadly throwing stars zooming at each other, all of them hitting and bouncing away.

Shin'en jerked his hand, yanking on the ninja wire attached to his shuriken, sending them all flying back at Perci, who jerked her own ninja wire. In response, they both sent another hail of shuriken, cutting each other's wires, and with two handfuls of shuriken coming at each other, they countered by throwing more shuriken.

Soon enough the air was filled with a cloud of pointed death, the airwaves disturbed by the clattering of metal. The siblings' arms blurred as they threw, intercepted, and threw back shuriken. Sparks were sliced clean in half by incoming shuriken there were so many in the air. In puffs of smoke, the siblings unsealed more shuriken to throw at each other, playing the world's deadliest game of catch.

Coincidentally, they both ran out of supply at the same time.

Time seemed to stop in that instant. Whether Kronos was doing something or if it was dramatic effect is up to be figured out by you, the facts are that Shin'en looked at Perci, and Perci looked at Shin'en, and they might as well have been looking at a mirror. Their hair was the same length, the same silken raven color; their eyes were the same haunting shade of emerald, darkened from years of war and emotional trauma; their features were the same, with their nose structure being the same, their jaw lines even, the shape of their eyes perfect copies.

That was the strangeness between them. Even though their twin was of the opposite gender, they still looked exactly the same. Perhaps it was a divine thing, twins being so similar, or maybe there was a problem with their reproductive organs not producing enough testosterone and estrogen for a masculine and feminine look, respectively. Or maybe it was none of those things.

The fact was that they looked at each other, and saw the other. They saw their own pain, their own pasts, the horrors they had witnessed, the horrors they had done, the destruction they wrought, the peace they had brought, the lives they'd saved, the lives they'd taken.

It was one thing to look in a mirror, it was another to look at yourself, and see it all. Every secret you've kept, every embarrassing moment, every heartbreaking moment, every triumph, every blunder. To meet someone that knew you and understood you down to every fiber of your being…and to have to _kill_ that person.

The instant passed, and the swords were drawn. With a cry, they raced at the other, and Shin'en made a Hand Seal. Perci's eyes widened. Four of the shuriken spread around the battlefield glowed, and a Sealing Formula glowed to life under the siblings.

 _SCHING_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en's head rested on Perci's shoulder, her head resting on his. Still standing, their bodies were pressed together. Underneath them on the ground was a Sealing Formula, an original one that no Uzumaki or Seal Master would recognize even on pain of death. The siblings' swords were pointed at an angle, seemingly running each other through.

However, where Perci's sword had been caught between Shin'en's arm and ribs, his sword had run her through.

A thin trail of blood leaked from the corner of Perci's mouth. "You killed me," she observed. She moved her head a bit, to where she could see the ground. "I know this Seal. I've been working on it. It's supposed to block the powers of divine beings, so if I ever fought another version of myself, I could do so without worrying about godly powers being used. The only kink I've been trying to work out is how to get it to _not_ affect myself….Did you work it out?"

"…no…"

"Damn."

Perci slid down, and Shin'en caught her before she could fall onto the shuriken-ridden ground. He placed an arm across her shoulder blades, supporting her weight. Blood steadily dripped from her open wound.

"You lied to me," Shin'en said.

"Actually, I never confirmed nor denied who you said I was."

The Abyss' eyes were dark and hollow, empty. Quietly, he said:

"Persephone…"

With a bloody smile, she grinned. "I am a good liar, aren't I? Had you fooled, and all them too."

Shin'en didn't say anything.

"You know, we might have said no hard feelings, but…do you know what you've done? You've killed me, Percy. I can't use the water to regenerate, and I can't liquefy to heal myself, because of the Seal. Man, killing your own big sister…I know that's going to tear you up, but I'm still feeling vindictive. You've taken me from my own little brother, after all."

Weakly, Persephone reached up and put her hand and Shin'en's temple, and she connected their chakras. Immediately, Shin'en was subject to memories beyond the Blood War, beyond the Titanomachy. He was subject to memories of himself from Persephone's point of view.

In her world…he was an innocent soul. Happy, bright, naïve, childish. So much so, that even the likes of Grover sought to defend him from the evils of the world. He was protected— _sheltered_ , even—from everything that he could be protected from. Grover protected him, Chiron protected him, Annabeth protected him, hell, even fucking _Clarisse La Rue_ kept her siblings away from him.

He was a cinnamon roll, plain and simple.

Especially when it came to his sister. He was like Nico, on steroids. He absolutely _adored_ Persephone. From the moment Sally had told him of her on that day on their very first dream of each other, he had been dying to meet her, dying to just hug her, and he had gotten the chance. The Titan War ended, and Persephone came through on her promise of spending a year with him, making him literally jump and cheer. His favorite thing to do was cuddle into her arms for a nap and at night, and he could feel it…

He could feel the love Persephone had for him, the fiery drive to keep him safe and protected from everything at all costs, and he could feel his own love for his big sister, the pure joy he derived from being in her arms, laying his head on her chest. In her presence, he acted more like he was six, not sixteen.

Shin'en felt something hot and wet trail slowly down his cheek, and the feeling pulled him to reality. It was a tear, and Persephone was staring seriously up at him, pale, cold.

" _That_ is what you've done. You've taken me from him. You've taken him from me. You've killed me, and it's going to devastate my beloved little brother. He's going to wake up, and I'm not going to be there." Persephone's eyes watered. "I'm never going to be there again. I can see you don't know it, so here it is: when people like us die outside our dimensions, we fall under no afterlife jurisdiction, and because of that, our souls go to one place…oblivion."

Persephone's breathes turned into pained wheezes. "I want you…to go there…and tell him…tell him bye, for me…and tell him—tell him—tell him-ack!"

She broke down into a fit of coughing, blood spurting from her wounds and her mouth. The tears fell from the corners of her eyes as she cried. "I love you…so much…little brother."

Persephone looked at the sky, the rising sun painting it in a dazzling mix of orange, gold, purple, and blue. "Sorry, Percy…there won't be a next time."

In that year, Percy was always asking Persephone to teach him how to throw kunai and shuriken like she could, and she, not wanting him to know how to kill like her, always declined, always saying "next time." Now, though….

Persephone turned delirious, the blood loss addling her final moments, and in her final moments, she recalled an old promise.

"Asteria, Annabeth, I'm coming…I hope you're both ready…to finish our old arguments…"

Her eyes dimmed and her body stilled, then she became dust, her body dissolving into thousands of glowing white particles. Most of them ascended up and faded, but some centered around Shin'en's eyes, entering, obscuring them from view. The softly glowing white faded gradually, and when they were gone, a new pattern graced Shin'en's eyes.

The lines had all contracted and tightened to allow room for more lines across his eye. Now, instead of three triangles overlapping into a nine-pointed star, there were six triangles overlapping into an eighteen-pointed star. His Mangekyou and Persephone's Mangekyou, joining together into a new eye, one that need not be named.

The sun rose high enough for it to be consider past early morning, and it was beautiful. The blue sky was dotted with the odd cloud, there was no ear-splitting cacophony of traffic and screaming people, no more skyscrapers to block the view straight to the ocean. It was peace incarnate.

There wasn't even an approaching enemy army.

The Sealing Formula on the ground faded, the chakra powering it vanishing.

"Now I understand what Jashin was saying. I wouldn't have been able to sneak up on you like this if you were more stable, especially given how much power I have now, after I've absorbed Prometheus and my army, a trick I learned from spending 4,000 years with my uncle, and put the red stone in me."

Kronos' leg whipped around, nailing Shin'en upside his head, sending him flying away. The Titan appeared next to the airborne demigod, and brought down his elbow, shattering the ground with Shin'en's body. Kronos reached down and grabbed the boy's throat, hauling him up in a grip with a fully extended arm. Shin'en's head was lulling backward, so Kronos only saw his chin, bits of his lips, and his nose.

"Now, I could kill you now and conquer Olympus, and then conquer that sister of yours, making her the first in a new generation of concubines after I find Rhea, or I could savor this moment, and beat the shit out of the demigod that's killed three of my brothers and caused me so much grief…" Kronos grinned, golden eyes glinting.

"I think I'm going to beat you on my way up to Olympus."

Shin'en's hand snapped up, and Kronos grimaced with an audible sound as his wrist was squeezed. Even with all the power he now possessed from absorbing the essences of another Titan, and literally thousands of monsters, he still felt great pain at the hands of a demigod.

"I don't think you realize just how monumentally _fucked_ you really are." Shin'en brought his head up, and Kronos gulped at the glaring red eyes. A leg hit his chest, and he was sent skidding away, a hand on his wound. When he stopped, he coughed a globule of _ichor_. Kronos glared and wiped his mouth.

"The happy childhood I could've had with my sister…gone, because of this moment." The air around Shin'en began to distort as his chakra swelled. "The bond I could've made with her…destroyed, because of you." Small rocks began rising around him, the ground shaking. "The life I could've shared with her…ruined, because you just had to rise."

With a sound like laser fire, Shin'en's chakra shrouded him in a blast of emerald fire. Kronos crossed his arms in front of him to shield his face from the sudden stinging winds.

"All of my suffering…all of my pain…all of my hatred…all of it can be attributed to you." The Titan scowled when he saw his grandson's eyes, the pupil fluctuating between a dot and a Greek omega. Shin'en's long hair was rising up, the strands wriggling and waving, as if desiring to lash out and destroy. The beautiful rising sun became hidden behind a black wall of clouds, the peaceful morning shattered by the arrival of a terrible tempest.

"One attack," Shin'en snarled. "One blow. One final clash. All of our power…here and now. No battle, no conflict, just one…ultimate…strike."

The chakra shroud around Shin'en faded, his hair fell back down, and his eyes lost all of their glow, becoming the solid hollow emerald they were known for. He became so suddenly calm it unnerved Kronos, but he schooled himself and regained his balance. One final attack, all the power?

Fine.

Shin'en held out his hand, and his sword shot into his grasp from several meters away. He held it in his left hand and took a stance, one leg in front of the other, weight on the back foot, right arm extended, left one cocked back. Kronos took a similar stance, only he held his scythe in his right hand.

Shin'en crouched low, muscles tensing. Kronos copied. Shin'en crouched lower, growling. Kronos followed suit. The air thickened, the pressure growing heavy. Golden sparks of lightning began to flit about the Titan King, his pupils glowing the same shade as his iris. Shin'en lowered himself as much as could, and then he gave his cry.

"HAA!"

Every last bit of his chakra poured from him in a vortex of unbridled fury. Everything that he had left went into this, all of the emotion from just killing his sister, seeing Yūrei dead, the pain of knowing it was his fault, the pain of being betrayed by the Raikage, the twins' deaths, Asteria's, Annabeth's, and everything in between…it all came out.

His pupils shifted into the omega, the sign of the end, and his hair shot straight up.

Demigod Mode.

Awakening.

And, impossibly, Kronos _matched_. The Titan's eyes went pure, luminous gold, cracks of golden light splintering away from the eyeball. A bulb of golden, Titanic energy, energy superior than that of a god, formed around him before surging out in all directions like an ocean spilled from the heavens.

The two waves of energy, Shin'en's scary dark emerald and Kronos' sickly gold, clashed and sent blasts of energy shooting in all directions. When it seemed that the world was going to split apart, they leapt at each other, cones of energy around them.

The scythe met the sword in a boom, and both mighty warriors went shooting to the west, weapons locked. Beneath them the ground was torn asunder, a trench as deep as a football field was long being gouged under them. They broke their lock and went shooting into the sky, faster than sound, louder than the sun.

Shin'en drew his arms back, yelling with everything he had as everything he had came to the surface all at once. Kronos drew back his scythe, screaming just as loud as 4,000 years of hatred and fury and desire and ambition and rage all came roaring up at once.

The weapons met in an explosive blast of power so great that the entire storm cell was instantly dispelled, Olympus itself was pushed out of place, threatening to break apart and fall. Arcs of lightning erupted from the clash, shooting out and ripping apart miles of land, uprooting massive chunks of earth, striking at Olympus and damaging the mountain, almost cutting it apart in many locations as the wards were overpowered. Skyscrapers for dozens of miles in all directions shuddered and sustained monstrous damage, some toppling completely, bringing others down all around them, and some losing every window on their body.

The entire Eastern Seaboard trembled under the fury of gods.

Kronos and Shin'en appeared back on the ground.

The Titan's scythe clattered from his grip, broken. A shuddering gasp escaped him, wisps of golden mist leaving his body. The sword and cleaved through him, right through his Achilles Heel in his armpit, right through where the red stone was, destroying it.

"You may have defeated me," Kronos rasped in his final moments on this earth, "but Typhon is coming, and he will finish what I started. Besides, I still got you…"

With a fading scream of agony, a torrent of golden energy left Luke Castellan's body, and the demigod fell to his knees. His blue eyes were left staring at the mountain above him, and he could've sworn he saw Annabeth's face, even from so far down below. His lips trembled up, but his strength left him. Kronos leaving him was fatal, after all.

Luke pitched forward and died, sprawled on the ground.

Shin'en lowered his sword, and then he let it go. The blade clattered to the earth. Slowly, eyes empty and weak as all his chakra was spent, and something else sapped his strength, he reached up to his side…and yanked out the seven inches of Kronos' scythe that had been lodged into him.

He had been lucky in another life only to be nicked while at full strength, and to have the ocean right there to jump into. In this life, he had not been nicked, nor was he anywhere close to full strength, and there was no ocean close enough to command to him. There wasn't even any water in the air, all of it having been vaporized in all the explosions.

Shin'en collapsed to his back. He could feel his soul scattering, being sheared apart by the magic of the scythe, cut into pieces and scattered about in him. As he lay dying, he saw his sister and Annabeth descend from Olympus through the magic of the elevator, the half-bloods and Hunters behind them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Yes, Perci was Persephone the entire time, and through her thoughts I lied to all of you. No, this was not something I just made up. I have had it planned for years that Shin'en would fight a female version of himself claiming to be someone else, only for it to be revealed that she is actually his big sister, and that she was the one taken that night.**_

 _ **Persephone lied about who she was because she knew that whatever the outcome, she would hurt Shin'en in severe ways. She sought to limit the potential devastation by keeping her identity a secret, but at the bitter end, she couldn't help but take a stab at the one that killed her, robbing her of her happiness.**_

 _ **Take a stab at the one that hurt her little brother in the most painful way possible.**_

 _ **That dimension and its climax will be visited, but in the far, far future.**_

 _ **Moving on, I felt no desire for another massive fight between superpowered beings, so I opted for a simple, destructive, ultimate final exchange of blows. Everything Kronos had in his own power, the red stone, Prometheus and the thousands of monsters he absorbed, against Shin'en's emotional instability.**_

 _ **The result was basically a tie.**_

 _ **Next chapter closes the Titan War and heralds the beginning of the Blood War. At the end of Chapter Five I mentioned two twists. Perci being an alternate Persephone was the first, and the next twist is coming next chapter. I recommend going back and rereading Chapter 53 of**_ **Backup Plan** _ **.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Shin'en lay dying on the ground, a smirk tugged at the corners of his lips as he saw the horror and distraughtness on his sister's face as she ran to him to try and save him, storm clouds heavy with rain gathering above in response to her emotions.

Shin'en grinned.

 _Exactly as planned._


	8. Backup Plan: Phase 2: Final

_Backup Plan: Phase 2: Final_

 _ **And this is the final chapter before we begin the Blood War.**_

 _ **Enjoy the happiness while you can.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _PERCY!"_ was Persephone's agonized cry as she ran full speed to her fallen little brother. Everyone was hot on her heels too, but she paid them no heed.

When she got close enough, she slid to her knees and skid across the ground, not even caring as her jeans were ripped and her skin scraped away. She bowled into her brother, and she cradled him tightly with everything that she had. He was cold, his eyes dim, his body limp. Persephone couldn't feel a pulse.

Above, the clouds darkened and churned, and the ground began to tremble. Persephone's gut tightened as her powers threatened to unleash, but she was far too distraught to care. "COME ON! COME ON! YOU CAN'T DIE ON ME!"

Thalia was cradling Luke, softly crying, her own emotions adding to the storm. Annabeth was torn between joining Thalia and mourning Luke, or comforting her girlfriend. Persephone set Percy on the ground, and began CPR, pressing his chest and putting her mouth to his.

It wasn't working, and she broke down, pounding his chest and slamming her fists down on him as she sobbed. When Persephone started hitting her brother is when Annabeth moved, restraining her girlfriend. "Stop it, Seph! He's-" her voice broke. "He's gone."

Persephone threw her head back and screamed. Lightning flashed as the clouds spilled their tears, the thunder booming just as loud as any explosion. The half-bloods and Hunters just stood there as they were drenched, none of them able to find any joy in the moment of Persephone's sorrow.

And then someone looked up, and they gasped. "Look!"

Heads turned, and there were shocked releases of breath, sharp exhales of surprise. Rising from the ground were the bodies of the enemy demigods, all of them encased in cocoons of Sealing Formulas. The Seals glowed and broke, the rain soaking their bodies. And then Luke flinched.

Thalia flung herself back in surprise, and Luke coughed and gagged as if being released from asphyxiation. Weapons were drawn as the son of Hermes tried to regain himself, and more chaos ensued when all the enemy half-bloods began coughing and wheezing, seemingly coming back from the dead.

Persephone's sobs subsided when she saw what was happening, and she looked around uncomprehendingly.

Luke looked up and stared at Shin'en. He looked at his hands, felt his face, and then he looked over and saw Alabaster and the rest alive and well. Even as the rain poured down his face, his eyes were wide with disbelief, but it was not disbelief over the dead seemingly rising, but that _it_ was successful.

"Oh, my gods," he gasped, bringing all the eyes to him. "He did it, that crazy bastard, he _did it_."

"Luke…?" Thalia said tentatively.

He whipped to her with eyes burdened with too much to know where to begin, his mouth struggling to work itself into words. He failed, and so he looked back around at Persephone and her brother.

"He did it," Luke said again. "He came through on his promise." And then he seemingly realized he was pissed on by the sky, and still in Manhattan. "Wait…what was the last thing that happened? Has Typhon been taken down?"

Persephone was still flabbergasted over this whole thing, and couldn't speak. With the other half-bloods, they gained enough bearing to recognize the enemy forces, and, not knowing what else to do, drew weapons and made to attack.

"STAND DOWN!" Luke bellowed over the rain. His forces came to a halt, Alabaster looking at him questioningly, "But, Luke…"

"The war is over," Castellan said with grim finality. "We've won…well, we're halfway there."

"What?"

Luke looked back at Persephone. "Has there been a council meeting yet? Have all the Titans been defeated?"

Annabeth answered, "Well, yeah, I think. Kronos has been defeated…I think…and so was Hyperion and I guess Oceanus…we haven't seen Prometheus, so…I don't know."

"Typhon?"

"Still heading this way, I think." Annabeth was getting frustrated with not having a firm grasp on anything right now. "Luke, what the Hades is going on?"

He was silent for a long time. His forces moved to him, carefully skirting around the wary demigods loyal to Olympus, all present eager for an explanation. Finally, Luke said, "A plan. A plan he made to ensure everyone wins. None of you die, none of us die, and the Olympians are both saved from destruction, and punished for their negligence. Shin'en made a plan, and I agreed to it."

"What was the plan?" Thalia asked.

Luke shook his head. "I can't tell you. It might compromise something. Just know that everything is going smoothly right now."

"My baby brother is _dead_ ," Persephone hissed.

Luke nodded. "Good. That's part of the plan."

Persephone froze, then her eye twitched. Then she grabbed Percy's cloak and began vigorously shaking him with all the wrath of a big sister. "You little brat! You have me all worried and crying and you're just playing possum! WAKE UP!"

She slapped him across the face with a mighty _smack_ , and all it did was redden his cold cheek. At the lack of a response, Persephone started rapidly slapping him back and forth across his face until her hand started hurting. Percy's head just lulled backwards, his tongue flopping out.

Steam roared from Persephone's ears as she seethed.

"That's not going to work," Luke said.

"Then what _will_?" the sea princess scowled.

"…I'm not sure," Castellan said. "He said it was like he was going to go into stasis, with Kronos' scythe tearing his soul, but not completely removing it from his body."

"And? I feel like there's more to this."

"I can't say."

Persephone rose, very, very angrily, and she stomped to Luke, each footfall causing a tremor. She grabbed his shirt and yanked him close to her face. "I've about had it up to _here_ with your cryptic crap. Start talking before I rip off your nuts."

Before there could be any nut-ripping, rhythmic tremors drew all attention to the west, where a big storm was approaching, a storm that looked remarkably humanoid.

"Typhon!" someone correctly guessed.

Circling the storm giant were bright lights hurling energy that didn't seem to do much. One little blip in the sky called down a bolt of lightning the size of a skyscraper, hitting Typhon in the face in a massive explosion…that did little to no damage at all.

The demigods started panicking, especially when the storm giant reached the Hudson, but then there was a conch horn sound, and a battle cry. "To me, my brethren!"

And then the Hudson opened up and swallowed Typhon hole, presumably sending him right back to Tartarus.

The demigods watched that entire scenario play out with tilted heads and weird expressions. When Typhon was gone, there was revealed to be Poseidon and an army of merfolk and cyclopes.

"Sister!" one of the cyclopes screamed.

Tyson came lumbering forward, clearly intent on hugging Persephone, but with Typhon now gone, the rest of the Olympians had nothing to fight, and so they descended upon the gathered army of demigods. Just when that happened, there was the call of a hunting horn, and then Chiron raced onto the scene followed by hundreds of centaurs wearing an assortment of party gear. To end off the gathering, the ground darkened considerably, and an army of skeletons emerged, led by Hades and his children, Nico and Bianca di Angelo.

There was a long, awkward silence as all the gathered parties kinda just stared at one another, before Persephone threw her hands up and roared, "YOU'RE ALL LATE!"

Zeus stepped forward. "Where is Kronos and his ilk?"

Persephone impatiently tapped her foot. "Percy handled it."

Zeus looked lost for a minute as he tried to figure out who Percy was, and then he remembered. "Right, right. Percy is Shin'en—wait. Where is Shin'en?"

Persephone jabbed a finger behind her, indicating the only other person present wearing a black cloak.

"Is he dead?" Zeus asked.

"I don't know! _This one_ keeps saying there's some grand plan, but he won't tell anyone!"

That's when everyone noticed Luke Castellan and the rest of the rogues.

Zeus' eyes glowed. "Thief! Traitor!"

Luke remained serious and straight-faced. "Be quiet, Sparky-Sparky Boom Man."

Everyone looked at Luke as if his penis had just slithered out his pants, but what he said had an interesting effect on Zeus. The Sky King seized up and became lucid. "We shall continue this conversation on Olympus."

He slammed his Bolt down, and there was a bright flash. When everyone's eyes cleared, they found themselves in the Olympian throne room. Hades was on a throne, Hestia was blinking, frozen like a deer in headlights, Chiron and all the half-bloods were there, and there were two other people.

"Persephone!"

"Mom?"

Sally shoved her way through those that wouldn't move, Paul right behind her. When range was acquired, Sally grabbed her daughter and yanked her into her embrace. Paul put his arms around both of them.

"Oh, thank the gods you're alright! So, is that it? Is the war over?"

"Um, yeah…actually." Persephone blinked, and then she became sad.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Sally asked, worried.

Persephone didn't answer verbally. She stepped aside and revealed her brother lying cold on the floor. Sally's breath audibly hitched in her throat. She looked at her daughter, then back to the floor. Shakily, she raised a trembling finger, looking back at Persephone.

"Is…is that…really…?"

Persephone nodded once.

Sally's hands flew to her mouth as tears fell from her eyes. She moved to her son, kneeling next to him. Reverently, her hands floated over his face, settling around his neck. With a sob, she reached down and pulled him to her. For the first time in her life— _the very first time_ —she was able to hold him, and hold him she did. And she cried.

The demigods moved back many paces, showing respect. The gods had their own varying reactions. Paul knelt next to Sally, putting a hand on her shoulder in a show of support. He didn't know a damn thing about Percy, other than he was Persephone's younger twin and was taken at birth to parts unknown, and sometime showed up.

It didn't make any sense to him, but he didn't press.

Now, however, Percy was apparently dead.

For what seemed like forever, the only sounds in the throne room were those of Sally's cries. Poseidon eventually moved to comfort his consort, and Persephone stood above them all, leaning into Annabeth's shoulder while a few quiet tears fell down her face. Then there were new sounds, gasping, pointing, sharp intakes of breath.

There, in the middle of the air, a black square appeared, and got much bigger. From out of this black square, the storm god Susano'o emerged, and he did not look happy. He walked forward, heedless of everything, focused solely on the mourning family before him. Though he did acknowledge one person.

"Castellan."

Luke just nodded.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE, FOREIGNER!?" Zeus thundered. Memories of that day years ago were still fresh in the Sky King's memory. In a foreign land, powerless, helpless, at the mercy of whoever wanted to subject him…but now he had a chance to return the favor, and he intended to make the most of it.

He brandished his Bolt, intent on putting the foreign god in chains, but the shadows rose, bending together to wrap around the celestial bronze rod, and yank it from Zeus' hand.

"HADES!"

"It's not me, I swear on the Styx."

The distant clap of thunder was barely heard, due to everyone's attention being focused on how the shadows were moving into the shape of slim man with pasty skin, half-lidded eyes, stringy hair parted in the middle, wearing black clothes the likes of which were of an unrecognizable material.

Persephone recognized this man. "Ere— _Lord_ Erebus."

"Correct."

And that was all it took to get almost everyone to bow. Sally was more preoccupied with holding her dead son, Persephone was holding Annabeth up, and Susano'o was intently studying his champion.

"Rise," Erebus commanded, and all rose. When Zeus stood, the Dark God tossed back the Bolt. "Behave, little king."

The Sky God, just nodded shakily.

Erebus turned and knelt beside Susano'o, Shin'en, and the others. Luke and Persephone and Annabeth joined.

"His plan worked well," the Storm God said, "too well. His soul scattered through his memories as intended, but it scattered too much." The Rinnegan met Erebus' dark eyes. "Did you have anything to do with this?"

"Can't say I did."

Susano'o hummed, not convinced.

"What are you talking about?" Persephone asked. "What do you mean 'his soul scattered through his memories'?"

Shin'en's patron looked at her. "Luke is not lying when he says there is a plan. The plan was to be felled by Kronos' scythe, allowing his soul to be damaged by the weapon's magic, while also using his own magical ability to direct the damage."

"Direct it how?"

Erebus answered. "Direct it into his memories, so that in order to piece his soul back together, you'd have to view certain past events. The events in question being the conversation Shin'en had with Luke, when the plan was made."

"Oh."

"However, where his soul scattered as intended, it scattered into places he didn't want it to go. All of the pieces into one specific time, with a few in other places. To piece his soul back together, you'd have to witness all these events in chronological order, one after the other, without rest, without stopping."

"Okay," Persephone said impatiently. "Let's get started."

Susano'o rose, almost glowering. "You don't get it. The chief time in which these soul fragments are at, is in those two and a half years you had no dreams of him…the Blood War."

The words seemed to echo through the whole throne room.

"Blood…War…?" Persephone said hesitantly.

"It was terrible. There was a reason he requested that you didn't see him for that time."

"Whoa…wait, hold up." Persephone looked ticked. "He didn't _want_ me to see him?"

"Yes." Susano'o said it with such grimness that the girl shut up. He looked down at his comatose champion.

"Please," Sally said. "Save him."

"To do so would expose the secrets he wants to be kept, and expose all of you to horrors so great, that to bear witness to them would scar you forever. The Blood War is not something to be taken lightly."

"Well, we're never going to find out with you beating around the bush. Let's get started."

"Child," Susano'o scolded Persephone. "You know not what you're asking for."

And then she did something no one could have ever predicted: she stepped forward and grabbed the Storm God's kimono, and yanked him close. Through grit teeth, she said, "Let's. Get. Started."

Susano'o looked at Erebus for some reason.

"You heard her," the Dark God said.

Susano'o sighed. "Very well, then. Just know that if you survive this, none of you will ever be the same again."

The Rinnegan glowed, and then all went dark.

Perhaps he should've asked if anyone wanted to leave, or if there was anyone that didn't want to be a part of what was coming. There were those that were literally going to die from this; half-bloods that couldn't handle watching what was coming. Even the gods would be scared from this. They, who had lived for millennia and had seen great horrors and atrocities, would still be left sweating and trembling by what they were going to see.

And if you, dear reader, had any shred of human decency left in you...if you make it through the rest of this story, you too will not be the same.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Short, but sweet. I recommend rereading**_ **Backup Plan** _ **to reacquaint yourself with pre-Blood War Shin'en, and to refresh your memory on some events that were mentioned. I will be doing the same, so don't expect the next chapter out for maybe a few days.**_

 _ **In other news, I'm getting a new job soon, so that might affect updates, so exercise patience.**_

 _ **In other, other news, it's finally here…the long-awaited Blood War.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review.**_


	9. Your Only Warning

_Your Only Warning_

 _ **This is your only warning. I said in Chapter 28 of**_ **Transcendence** _ **that what was going to happen in that chapter would be a preview of the Blood War. Many did not heed my warning, and wasted my time with flames and negativity.**_

 _ **This is my attempt at trying to stave such responses.**_

 _ **In this arc, there will be many depraved and vile things. Some of it will be coming from my own head, some of it will be taken from the most infamous horror movies and most twisted hentai you've never heard of.**_

 _ **The following is a list of things I've already thought of that will be here:**_

 _ **Rape**_

 _ **Torture**_

 _ **Body modification**_

 _ **Fetishes**_

 _ **Slavery**_

 _ **Prostitution**_

 _ **Pedophilia**_

 _ **Graphic violence**_

 _ **Graphic torture**_

 _ **Split personalities**_

 _ **Animal cruelty**_

 _ **Violation of human rights**_

 _ **Deaths of children**_

 _ **Torture of children**_

 _ **Violation of children**_

 _ **Human trafficking**_

 _ **Drugs**_

 _ **Corruption**_

 _ **Concubines**_

 _ **Homosexuality**_

 _ **Bestiality**_

 _ **Necrophilia**_

 _ **And more.**_

 _ **Basically, essentially, the Blood War was a haven for all kinds of sexually depraved acts, and all kinds of depraved acts in general. You're going to read this, and throw up, or read this and become desensitized to everything in this world, or read this and not even bat an eye.**_

 _ **Further, as this is your only warning, there will not be any warning in any chapters like "Warning: graphic violence ahead," or "Warning: rape ahead."**_

 _ **This**_ _ **is your universal warning. Some chapters might be light and fluffy because Shin'en's a kid and has kid moments as Yūrei breaks through his ice, but most will be edgy like a razor.**_

 _ **Now, you might be asking why such grittiness, and the answer is this: the story.**_ _ **This**_ _ **is what Shin'en has gone through.**_ _ **This**_ _ **is what he's suffered.**_ _ **This**_ _ **is the Hell he went through and survived.**_ _ **This**_ _ **experience is what made him strong.**_

 _ **You might also be asking how the story will be told, if it'll be like a Reading, with italicized words, commentary and reactions from the cast, or if it'll be normal with italicized reactions and commentary in a disembodied way. The way the Blood War will be told will be like a long series of one-shots from Shin'en's point of view. Not first person, but limited third. There won't be a peep from any of the PJO characters. They might as well not even exist right now.**_

 _ **To summarize: the Blood War arc is MA with material suited for mature adults only, and is told from limited third person point of view. Events of the Blood War have been mentioned in**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, and will generally be covered now. I may have forgotten some myself, so feel free to comb through**_ **Backup Plan** _ **and remind me.**_

 _ **That is all now. The next real chapter should be out soon.**_

 _ **Also, thank you KryptertJ for the cover art.**_


	10. Baby Killer

_Baby Killer_

 _ **Reminder: Yūrei is based off Night Raid from**_ **Akame ga Kill** _ **, with Arashi being based on Bulat, Bullock being based on Lubbock, Yūwaku being based on Leone, and Sukina being based on Chelsea. Refresh your memory as needed.**_

 _ **You've been warned, and here we go…**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _1010 A.S._

 _August 18_

 _Undisclosed Location_

 _9:27 P.M._

 _Shin'en stood on the edge of a rounded cliff. Beneath him, nothing but forest stretched on for miles and miles. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate. Beneath him was four people, two females and two males. Without any more thinking about it, the demigod promptly hopped off the cliff edge._

 _He landed without a sound and turned around, whistling lowly at the fact that there was a building carved from the very stone he just jumped off of. The people inside were moving around inside now, probably alerted by his presence._

 _The demigod calmly walked up the steps of the building, eyeing the impressive front door. There weren't any visible traps, but that didn't mean that there weren't any around. Doing the polite thing, and because all four people were at the door, Shin'en calmly knocked on the door._

 _The door was opened, and the boy was pulled in._

 _The entrance hall was just that, an entrance hall. Wide, open, and the ceiling supported by pillars with stone floors, walls, and roof, and chandeliers illuminating the hall. Multiple doors lined the walls, leading to other rooms and halls._

" _You're the one Mei assigned to us? We don't need to run into town to buy some diapers do we?" said a scratchy female voice to Shin'en's left._

 _The person who spoken was probably in her early twenties, had a scary grin on her face, pale skin, yellow eyes and hair that was cut short, spikey in the back. Two bangs reached down to her breasts and the rest were swept to the her left. She was dressed rather provocatively, with a white scarf, black tube top, baggy pants that left her inner thighs open and were tucked into brown boots, white opera gloves that were baggy around her elbow but tight everywhere else, and what could've been a pair of black panties._

" _Aw come one, Yūwaku. I think he looks cute." The other girl wrapped her arm around Shin'en's shoulder. She was wearing a white shirt with a black vest over it, a red skirt, black stockings that came up to her knees, and pink sandals. Her hair was orange and flowed down to just above her ass (Shin'en wondered how she managed going to the bathroom with hair that long). She was wearing headphones with a ribbon sticking up on the side, and a cigarette burned in her mouth. It was the glint in her orange eyes though that made the demigod internally cringe._

 _She was either an insane psychopath that got orgasmic joy from inflicting both mental, emotional, or physical pain on others, and probably had multiple torture devices in her quarters and was probably into femdom, or she had the complex of a big sister and saw him as her new little brother. Either way was creepy enough._

" _Lay off the lad, ladies. If Mei assigned him to us, that means she believes she can contribute," the first man spoke. He was extremely muscular, broad, had the air of a leader, tan skin, black hair in an impressive pompadour, blue eyes, wore a black muscle shirt and white pants tucked into brown boots. "My name is Arashi, and the one hugging you is Sukina. The last member of our group is Bullock."_

 _Bullock was an older teenager with green hair, his bangs swept down to his left chin, covering his green eye. A pair of red goggles on his head, red gloves on his hands, a green trench coat with a fur-lined hood, a white shirt, blue pants, and brown sandals. "Yo."_

" _My name is Shin'en, and I've been assigned to this squad by Mei Terumi." Arashi nodded and Sukina disengaged._

" _Each of us has a specific skill set that helps us with our missions," he said. "I am the leader, in charge of planning and coordination. Yūwaku is in charge of information gathering, using her body to her advantage." The woman bounced her boobs with a teasing grin on her face. "Sukina is our infiltration specialist, using her skills with_ _Transformation Jutsu_ _to complete missions. Bullock is an expert with ninja wire, able to use it for things you wouldn't even think possible." The man put his fists together and pulled them apart, four thin lines shining in the light. "Mei didn't tell us much about you, other than you can fit any roll for what we do."_

" _And what is it that you do?"_

" _Why, assassination and espionage of course," Sukina said._

 _Shin'en felt his world shatter. Those two things were the primary uses of shinobi. Those were the two things that shinobi were bred for. Those were the two things that he swore he would never do. And now it looked like he had no choice._

" _You okay kid?" Bullock asked with concern._

 _Shin'en closed his eyes to gather himself. "Yeah," he finally said, "just a little tired after travelling all the way here from the Land of Lightning." Not an entire lie, but he was far from telling the truth._

 _Arashi nodded in understanding, "That's alright. Yūwaku, show him to his room. I suggest we all turn in for the night; this might be one of the rare times we get a peaceful rest." The others nodded and dispersed, Bullock giving everyone a lazy goodnight, Arashi clapping Shin'en on the shoulder, and Sukina pecking him on the cheek before going to her room."_

" _Well kid," Yūwaku said cheerily, "let's go get you settled in."_

 _The two walked through a door and down a dark hallway. They past many tapestries and paintings, and there were doors that looked ready to fall off._

" _What is this place?" Shin'en asked quietly._

" _This used to be one of the Water Daimyo's summer retreats, before the Blood War started. He stopped coming here and the place fell into disarray, so we moved in and converted it into our headquarters," Yūwaku said. "Ah! Here we are, your room."_

 _She opened the door and flipped on the light. Shin'en looked around; it was a simple place, carpet, blue painted walls and ceiling, bed in one corner, dresser in another, shelf with multiple books, ceiling fan, a closet door, and a bathroom door._

" _Breakfast is whatever you find, and wakeup time is whenever someone feels like it. You can explore this place all you want, but try not to get lost, because your mommy isn't here to find you," she batted her eyelashes suggestively, "unless you want me to be your mommy, baby boy~." Shin'en slammed the door in her face, muffling her laughter._

 _The idiosyncrasies were strong with these people, but he felt that they would all get along. The vibe he got from Arashi was that he could be laidback yet serious when he needed to be. Bullock seemed to be a go with the flow type of person, easily able to fit in with every crowd. Sukina was the one everyone connected to, and was probably the shoulder to cry on. Yūwaku was the tease, the spirit, and the humor of the group, and was open with her sexuality. Shin'en wondered how many fetishes she had forced herself to play along with in order to complete a mission._

 _They were an interesting bunch, that was for sure. But would you expect from an assassination squad called 'Yūrei'?_

 _-Excerpt from Chapter 17 of_ Backup Plan

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _August 19, 1010 A.S._

 _Yūrei's base_

Ten-year-old Shin'en snapped wide awake early in the morning. His internal clock wasn't supposed to go off for another four hours, but his awakening was not caused by a glitch in his circadian rhythm. No, he was awake suddenly because there was something crawling on his face.

Shin'en's hand alit with chakra and he swiped, slicing the insect clean in twine. As it fell away, he saw that it was a cockroach, one easily as big as his hand. And then he felt the crawling sensation all across his body. Any lesser person would've yelped and began screaming; Shin'en just growled.

He threw off his blanket and flipped up, sending the entire swarm of bug into the air. Both of his hands glowed with chakra, and he began to swipe furiously with expert precision, slicing each roach clean from bow to stern, right down the middle.

He finished in less than two seconds.

With a frown, he reigned his chakra back in, and glared at his door, where Sukina was standing, having opened it and occupied the space. "Good technique, though you were too loud. You'll need to be quieter for what we do."

"I didn't make a sound."

"Your chakra. I could hear it from my room, and it's on the opposite side of the house."

"You mean you could sense my chakra?"

Sukina shrugged. "If that's how it helps you make sense of it, then yes. I could sense your chakra."

Shin'en didn't say anything after that, not knowing what could be said.

Sukina broke the silence. "So, are you going back to bed, or are you too awake now?"

His eyes narrowed, distrustful of the older teen before him. "I'm staying up."

She nodded. "I don't recommend staying in here. Those were the babies. Their mama will come looking soon enough, and trust me…you don't want to mess with a roach mama."

"I can handle a bug."

"I don't know," Sukina said teasingly. "A little one like you could be breakfast."

"I'm not little."

"Of course, my mistake. You're a big boy."

"I _will_ kill you if you make me mad enough." He wasn't joking, either.

Shin'en _detested_ the four people he was interacting with. They had literally said what they were, espionage and assassination, the two chiefest things shinobi were known for, and he _hated_ shinobi. It was a struggle for the boy not to make a run for the Hidden Mist and slaughter everyone there, working his way through the ranks until he got right to Yagura himself, using his hydrokinesis to make quick work of everyone around him, but no.

It had been his promise to help Mei and the Rebellion as was needed, and while he could justify such an action, it would be a loophole, and loopholes were something shinobi jumped through, a twist in their promise that they could exploit without truly breaking said promise, but to Shin'en, in his young mind, a loophole was still going back on his word, and he refused to do so, as it was shinobi that went back on their word.

And it was his policy to be as little shinobi as possible.

Sukina smirked at Shin'en's remark. "I can see it in your eyes that you would. You are a _fascinating_ person. So young, yet so ready to spill blood."

"Are you going to call me a monster?"

She snorted. "I've been killing people since before I stopped wetting my bed. You'll receive no judgement from me whatever your body count is." Sukina jerked her head in the universal way for "follow me."

"Come on. We're teammates now. We need to get to know each other."

Shin'en frowned deeply. She might as well have just asked him to clean the panties she was wearing when her period first started. Getting to know any of these murderers was not something he wanted any part of, and his Delay in movement did not go unnoticed.

"I won't bite. I promise."

"I'll kill you if you try that."

Despite his negative, almost bratty attitude, Sukina remained unfazed. She didn't get frustrated, she didn't lose her temper, her voice never raised, and she remained ever calm, patient, and collected.

"Hm, I suppose that's an appropriate reaction to a girl trying to bite you. Want one?" She offered the ten-year-old a cigarette.

Shin'en looked at it suspiciously. "It's poisoned."

Sukina laughed. "Well, if weed counts as poison, then yes. It's very much poisoned."

Shin'en tilted his head slightly, curiosity getting at him. He knew that weed was a drug, and he had used it before. In his interrogation training, he had been instructed on how the calming effects of the weed could be used to lower defenses and loosen tongues, and how prolonged exposure to the drug could render one helplessly addicted. So addicted that they would spill every secret they had just to get a little whiff.

Yugito sometimes smoked a weed cigarette. There wasn't much of a smell to it, as certain chemicals were added to counteract the sour aroma of normal cannabis. She had never outright told him he couldn't smoke, and he had never shown any inclination to wanting to smoke, and it was unspoken that if he wanted to, he would have to do so with her.

But Yugito wasn't here. She was a few hundred miles away in the Hidden Cloud, and that's when Shin'en realized just how alone he was now. There was no Yugito anymore, not for a long time. There was no Bee, no Ei, no Cee, no Darui, and no Ay. He was beyond any of their supervision now, and was free to make his own choices— _expected_ to make his own choices.

"No thanks," Shin'en said.

Sukina shrugged. "Suit yourself." She pulled a lighter from behind her back, lit her cigarette, took a drag, and exhaled into the hallway. Then she said, "And here comes Mama Roach."

Shin'en tilted his head to the side. He could feel something big scurrying down the hall, disturbing the water in the air. He entered the hallway, and paled a little.

Mama Roach indeed. She wasn't anything spectacular really, just a cockroach the size of your average door, which meant that all the little details on a regular roach were blown up by a scale exceeding a hundred. You get the picture.

Shin'en looked up at Sukina, who stood well over a head taller than him. "Why have you let that thing live here with you?"

The orange-haired girl shrugged. "Never saw any reason to kill her."

Mama Roach let out a disturbing sound, one that Shin'en didn't think a cockroach could make, an account of never hearing a cockroach make any noise in the first place. He didn't swell on it too long, because Mama Roach began scurrying directly at him with a speed that was highly disturbing to watch an insect that big move at.

"Oh, and her body is super tough, able to survive a three-ton rock falling on her from twenty feet up."

Shin'en was not a physics expert, but he knew enough to know a three-ton object falling from that height had a lot of force behind it. He looked back at the incoming Mama Roach and frowned. He pointed two fingers at it, and fired a pulse of water no bigger than a dime. The pulse went right through the middle of the roach, blasting a hole in it.

Mama Roach went limp, skidding along her underside, coming to a stop maybe a foot away from Shin'en and Sukina. They both looked at the gigantic bug, before Sukina shrugged. "We can sell that."

Shin'en raised a brow at her.

In that moment of the briefest lapse in focus, the Mama Roach, who wasn't actually dead, tried to bite the boy's leg. His foot came down on top of the bug's head so hard that not only did it explode in a shower of goop and exoskeleton, but the ground beneath splintered in a series of spider-web cracks.

"Damn, now we can't make as much money off it."

"A three-ton rock from twenty feet high?"

"Yep. You got some good physical strength there."

Shin'en glanced at her, then back at the dead insect. "…thanks," he accepted the compliment hesitantly.

There was a pulse of chakra from elsewhere in the Daimyo's old summer home.

"That's Arashi. Come on, I think it's time for our first mission together."

Shin'en scowled at the prospect of doing shinobi work. "I'll try to contain my joy."

Sukina giggled. "You're so cute when you're mad."

"I AM NOT CUTE!"

Sukina's giggles turned into laughter, and Shin'en growled. She patted his head, and he batted her hand away. She leaned down real quick and stole a peck on his cheek, and raced away down the hall, laughing. Shin'en growled, vexed at being treated like a child.

But he was not going to play her game. He was going to be the calm, collected, mature one. Composing himself, he made his way down the hallway with a professional air about him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When he arrived in the entry hall, he found Arashi, Bullock, and Yūwaku all having a staring contest with Sukina. Shin'en wasn't stupid, he knew what they were doing: they all knew each other so well that they were having a conversation with nothing but slight shifts in their eyes, and they were all talking about him.

The silent conversation came to an end when they saw him.

"Shin'en," Arashi greeted. The demigod just gave him a curt nod. "You'll be heading out with Yūwaku in ten minutes to check in with one of our informants. Based on the information given, you'll be heading out with us on a mission."

There was a pause, with Shin'en kind of freezing in place, not out of fright or apprehension, but surprise.

"That's not going to be a problem, is it?" Arashi asked.

"So soon?" Shin'en asked. "I got here less than five hours ago. None of you know me or what I'm capable of, and you already want me on missions? I thought there would be some kind of training stage, or observational period."

He expected them all to laugh at him like he had told a good joke, but no. All four of them were serious as the plague. In fact, more serious. Their eyes were cold and hard, yet hollow and deep. Even the jovial Yūwaku and ever upbeat Sukina were like this.

Arashi stepped forward, and stood before Shin'en, towering over the ten-year-old like the fully-grown man that he was. His ridiculous heart-shaped pompadour cast a shadow over his face.

"We are Yūrei, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist. On a paper that doesn't exist, we are the black-ops of the Rebellion, directly under the command of Mei, and no one else. We do the things she can't be seen doing. Unofficially, we are mercenaries for hire. We do whatever job that anyone willing to pay our fee will deliver to us. We've done great things, Shin'en… _terrible_ things, but great.

"As much as I hate Mei, she is not stupid, nor is she naïve or a bad tactician. She is smart, and she can be cruel when necessary, but she is not so cruel as to send some wet behind the ears, greenhorn genin into our midst. No, if you have been sent here, then that means you are a killer without remorse. You can get in and out of the tightest spots. You can take whatever assignment that is handed to you, whether it's picking up dog shit or fighting a Tailed-Beast, and find a way to complete it. You're a survivor, a murderer, a killer, a thief, a liar…a true child of the shadows." Arashi's eyes took on a dead look, devoid all feelings.

"If Mei sent _you_ here, then I will trust her judgement of you being capable of running with us, and if you're capable of running with us, then that means you are already prepared, mentally, physically, and emotionally, for all that we do, and as such, there is no need for training or observation. Until I have reason to believe otherwise, I consider you a member of this family, and I expect you to perform as such. Am I clear?"

After that speech, Shin'en did not trust himself to keep any kind of inflection out of his voice, so he settled for a sharp nod.

"Good," Arashi said. "Sukina will give you your uniform, and Yūwaku will instruct you on our pre-mission procedures."

His piece said, the leader of Yūrei disappeared down the hall, and Bullock followed a moment later, but before giving Shin'en a pat on his shoulder and offering an assuring smile and a strong nod. After the greenette was gone, that left Shin'en and the women.

Sukina sat down and placed a tag on the ground. The made a half-Ram Seal, causing a puff of smoke to come from the tag. When the smoke cleared, Shin'en raised a brow. Laid out before him was a black ensemble: a long-sleeve black shirt made of dri-fit material, a zip-up vest, pants, and boots. They were all the kind of black that didn't shine in the light, the kind of black that didn't catch the light at the right angle and make a glimmer. No, this was _pure_ black, the kind of black made in all absence of light.

While all of it looked well and good, there was one piece to the outfit that really stuck out: a white mask.

The mask was interesting, as it was the color of a bleached bone, not the kind of white of purity and cleanliness and life. Along the bottom of the mask was a curved line, with lines coming from it that went to the edge of the mask. It had the visual effect of making a kind of sadistic, mad smile. Over the left eye was a crescent on its side, opening up, and running down the middle of this crescent was a straight line. Over the right eye were three diagonal bars, all angled down at the nose of the mask. The mask itself was completely smooth, not a trace of any distinct features.

Sukina answered his unasked question. "Amongst all our weapons and abilities, our most dangerous is our anonymity. No one knows who we are, or where we are. The mask helps. As a member of Yūrei, it is your duty to uphold our anonymity, and therefore your own mask."

"How did you make one to fit my face, or did you just have it lying around?"

"I eyeballed the dimensions of your face and made this in ten minutes. Put it on so I can see if it fits."

Extremely weary yet confident he could handle any traps or tricks, Shin'en grabbed the mask, and held it to his face. To his surprise, he could feel the mask against his skin, but he could see as if it wasn't there, which was impressive as he didn't see any distinct eyeholes earlier.

"A perfect fit," Sukina nodded, pleased. "Also, the mask will stay on your face unless you take it off, or a strong enough force removes it." Shin'en moved his hand away, and sure enough, the mask stayed. "Good. Now change into these clothes, and yes, we fully expect you to do so in front of us, facing us."

The mask his facial expression, so the aghast look on the ten-year-old's face was not seen. He had _never_ been in such a situation. Yugito made him change clothes somewhere private, and she did the same, along with the other men. Now, one might've thought Sukina and Yūwaku were being perverts, demanding a little boy change his clothes before them, but both women were deadly serious, not a hint of mirth anywhere on their faces or body language.

Sukina continued. "You might be prepared to kill anything that breathes, but we accept that you are still a child with reservations about performing certain actions. Changing clothes in front of strangers is one of such actions but know this: over the course of this war, you will be charged with doing many uncomfortable things. Changing clothes in front of two grown women will be the least challenging, so enjoy it while you can, Shin'en."

It was also a display of trust. Could he trust them not do anything while he changed before them? He was going to be staying with them for a while it seemed, and they clearly had very little boundaries, and they seemed to not care/were desensitized to many things. Besides, Shin'en was, by the Shinobi World's standards, an adult. He was a trained killer, and an official member of an unofficial shinobi black-ops squad, which meant that he had full legal rights to partake in all adult activities.

He could drink and smoke, enter bars and strip clubs, engage in prostitution, own property and business, and get married and file for divorce.

As such, as an adult, Shin'en couldn't allow himself to be burned by embarrassment in the face of changing clothes in front of women. So, with that mindset, he stripped to his underwear, a simple pair of boxer-briefs, and donned the black uniform of Yūrei. Sukina and Yūwaku nodded in the affirmative.

"Looking sharp," the organette said.

"My turn," Yūwaku said, and then she proceeded to undress right in front of Shin'en, taking off _all_ her clothes, leaving herself nude in front of the ten-year-old. Shin'en stood where he was grateful for the mask covering his slightly red cheeks. Sure, he had seen naked women before when he dissected corpses, but not a live one. The differences were striking.

In little time, Yūwaku was dressed in her own variation of the black clothes. Her pants were baggy around her thighs but became tight from the knees down, tucked into boots. She wore a sleeveless shirt, made the same as Shin'en's, but she also wore handless opera gloves, which a better description might be arm sleeves, which made the point of a sleeveless shirt lost to Shin'en. Yūwaku had her own mask as well. It was white like bone, a grin along the bottom, but the paint across her eyes was different. Over her left eye were two lines with a slight arc to them, offset at different angles, coming together at a point at her nose, and over her right eye were two vertical lines with a crescent above them, opening down, making a picture like an aboriginal house. Her hair was all pushed back, her bangs tucked behind her ears.

Shin'en could guess why. Blonde hair like that, in that style, must've been uncommon around these parts, and so she offset the style to keep up that anonymity that Sukina preached about. Would've been better if she changed her hair color, too.

"In your clothes are pockets, and in those pockets are Sealing tags. I'm sure you can feel them. Inside the pocket on your left breast is a tag with a thousand shuriken, inside the pocket on your right breast is a tag with a thousand kunai, and inside the pocket on your left butt is a tag with a thousand senbon. Inside the pocket on your right butt is a tag with enough medical equipment to handle everything from a paper cut to reattaching a limb. Inside your pant leg is another pocket, and inside it is a tag with three sets of clothes for both a boy and a girl."

"Why a girl?"

"If you're in a situation where you're compromised and being hunted, dressing the opposite of what your hunters are looking for can help you escape."

Shin'en held his tongue on that one. Oh, he could've argued and debated such a notion for hours, but Yūwaku seemed eager to leave, and he himself was curious as to what meeting an informant was like.

"Anything else?" he asked.

"There's another pocket in your other pants leg that has enough food to last a week if rationed properly, three weeks if rationed in a life and death situation. Also, our uniforms are made for stealth. You'll notice that they don't catch any light, and in time, you'll come to find that the Land of Water is rife with anti-chakra technologies. Our uniforms are made to counter them, and we'll give you a better rundown when on actual mission prep. For now, just know that you have enough supplies and equipment on you to survive for a month, longer if you use your head, shorter if you lose your head. There's not much that'll go wrong on a simple informant checkup, but it pays to be prepared. Any questions?"

Shin'en shook his head.

"Then good luck and have fun." Sukina made to ruffle his hair and kiss his masked forehead, but Shin'en leaned back and batted her hand away. She didn't look hurt or offended, and her smile never faltered nor did the light in her eyes change.

Sukina stood and disappeared into the shadows of the hallway.

"Now, I have one question for you," Yūwaku said.

Shin'en looked at her.

"Do you have to go potty?"

…

If she hadn't asked that in such a serious tone, Shin'en would've punched her. As it was, he was honestly caught flatfooted by the question and the severity in the tone, but he recovered and answered truthfully. "No."

Yūwaku nodded. "Alright, let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When they were gone, Sukina, Arashi, and Bullock gathered in the main hall.

"She's already imprinting on him," the green-haired wire user stated.

Sukina pinched the bridge of her nose. "We're all going to be hearing diaper jokes until she gets over herself."

Arashi hummed, massive arms crossed over his chest. "Both of you know why Yūwaku is like that. Show respect."

The orangette snorted. "Trust me, I'm being respectful. I was there when they made her watch."

"What a world," Bullock said.

"And now that the kid's here, it may just get a bit brighter."

Sukina and Bullock both looked at Arashi. "You think he's the demigod everyone was talking about a few years back?" the wire user asked.

"Oh, I don't _think_. I _know_. The sole reason that Shin'en is here is because he's the demigod."

"Proof?" Sukina asked.

"Hearsay," was the answer. "The way Mei tells it, that freak storm four years ago, was because Shin'en watched as Ameyuri Ringo slaughtered his orphan brothers and sisters."

Bullock sighed. "Great. Another edgy avenger kid with a tragic backstory. Yippee."

"Yeah, but this edgy avenger kid has the power to create storms and earthquakes powerful enough to destroy forests, create chasms, and raise every body of water from here to every coast on the compass." Arashi looked at Sukina. "Any progress?"

She shrugged. "Some. It's always a long process though, and he's been hurt. Still, I can get through to him. A little boy like him who secretly, subconsciously just wants a hug? I can get through."

"Good," Arashi nodded. "You'll need to. For everything he's going to through in this war, he'll need a hug."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūwaku and Shin'en sped from tree to tree as nothing more than incomprehensible blurs. Many jonin would be have to put forth effort to see them, and the blonde was impressed that the little boy was keeping up with her.

An hour of straight moving passed, and Shin'en was getting impatient. He could feel a settlement at the edge of his sensory range, rapidly getting closer because of how fast he was moving. They shot right past the settlement, heading for the outskirts, to a farm. And then they passed the farm and went back into the trees.

Yūwaku stopped, Shin'en stopping a branch ahead of her. He looked back at her, his mask hiding his questioning look, but she felt it. She held up a hand, closed, and then opened her palm. Stop and stay, in shinobi signals. Shin'en could sense a person about a hundred meters away, fishing at a small pond, and nothing else besides mist and trees and animals as far as he could sense.

Yūwaku disappeared, reappearing the hundred meters away next to the man fishing. And so he waited, monitoring the surroundings and the exchange with acute detail. Yūwaku handed off a bag, one presumably filled with payment, and then the informant handed off a bigger bag, one presumably filled with payment for…something.

The blonde sealed away the bag, and reappeared next to Shin'en. He opened his mouth to engage in questions, but Yūwaku shook her head, putting a finger to the mouth of her mask. Shin'en nodded, and they sped the rest of the way back to the hideout without a word. When they arrived, the other three were waiting in the main hall.

"Report," Arashi barked.

"Everything's going just as smoothly as the last time we checked in."

"Requests?"

Yūwaku unsealed the bag and dumped a large amount of ryō notes, all of them with big numbers printed on them, onto the floor. There were three collective blinks, and Shin'en stared at the pile of money with wide eyes.

"What the hell does the employer want us to do? Bring back an extinct species?" Bullock asked.

"Nope. Kill the neighbors."

"Ah. It's one of those missions."

"Hold up," Shin'en walked into the middle, and took off his mask. "What do you mean 'one of those missions'? I thought we worked for Mei and the Rebellion. Why would be taking money from someone to kill their neighbors?"

"Because they paid us to," Arashi answered. "Like I said, we're mercenaries, and we do any job any employer pays us to do."

"So, we're just going to kill some guy's neighbors? What purpose does that serve us? What purpose does that serve the Rebellion?"

"In order of your questions: yes; the purpose it serves is to further our image; it provides funds for the Rebellion. We take our cut for bribes and expenses, and we give the rest to Mei."

Shin'en was growing frustrated. He was here to fight the forces of Yagura and kill Yagura himself. He was here to do whatever was necessary to do those things, and he was failing to understand why killing some guy's neighbors had any impact on the war.

Sukina stepped forward, kneeling in front of him. "We run missions for Mei, yes. We even run missions for Yagura."

Shin'en's pupils dilated. "We do _WHAT_!?"

Sukina continued. "And we run missions for whatever, as long as we're paid."

"We run missions for Yagura!?"

"Yes."

"How does that help the war!?"

"Money," Sukina shrugged. "Yūrei is not cheap, and to buy our services means you've got money to spare. Mei has us reinforce some units, assassinate some targets, and Yagura does the same. Some rich people hire us to do their dirty work, and some poor farmers scrape together enough money to get us to help them out. The bottom line is that we get paid, and the more money we raise, the more funds Mei has to use as she sees fit. Besides, we have an image to uphold."

"An image?" Shin'en hissed, still furious at the prospect of working for Yagura.

"Yes. To the people of the world, Yūrei has zero affiliation with anyone, anywhere. We work for money, so if you got it, we'll do it. Secretly, thought, we're part of the Rebellion, but we've got to keep that secret." Sukina winked.

Shin'en glared. "So, we support the Rebellion, by being everyone's bitch, and sending some money?"

"Lots of money!" Yūwaku chirped, kicking the pile of ryō notes.

"Money is the key to everything in the world, Shin'en. The more money you've got, the more options you have. So the faster we can fill Mei's coffers, the faster we can kill Yagura," Arashi said. "I hate it too, we all do, believe me—we all want nothing more than to storm the Hidden Mist and mount the Mizukage's head on a pike, but things like that take time. For now, we'll bear with it until we see the light at the end."

"How far do we have to go to see it?" Shin'en asked.

"Don't know. But I do know is that we'll take it, and dish all of it out…unless you can't handle it." Arashi glowered down at the boy. "Shin'en Yūrei, you have been tasked with the duty of fighting alongside us with the ultimate goal of killing Yagura of the Three-Tails. Do you have the patience to achieve such a goal, and the strength of will to carry on towards such a goal in the face of all adversity?"

"I do."

Arashi nodded. "Good. Then I expect no further complaints about missions. Am I clear?"

"Yes."

"Then let us begin mission preparations."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mission preparations were simple: Make sure the money was good—which it was—make sure the employer was credible—which he was—gain every bit of information on the employer that was available to the universe, scout the targets, scout the area around the targets, case the target's home, gain information on the targets, and make a plan about the targets.

And then make a backup plan just in case.

It was all routine work, stuff that Shin'en himself had done during his training in the Hidden Cloud.

Yūrei spent the day preparing for the mission, watching, checking equipment, double-checking equipment, and discussing what to do in the event of whatever happening.

What to do in case of fire.

What to do if it was Yagura himself.

What to do if it was a trap.

What to do if there was a stampede of giant cows.

What to do if a meteor came falling from the heavens.

Shin'en tilted his head and asked, "What do we do if the gods come down and decide to smite all of us?"

Without missing a beat, Arashi said, "We pray for forgiveness, and if that doesn't work, then we get ready to fight our way out of Hell."

Shin'en nodded. Sounded like a solid enough plan to him.

Night fell, and the boy realized that he hadn't slept at all since he was awoken by the cockroaches, but he also didn't feel tired. He felt…he didn't know how to describe what he felt. Tonight was it, the first step on the potentially long, potentially short road of Yagura's death, but that first step entailed the deaths of people that literally had no bearing on the Blood War, people that weren't even shinobi.

Shin'en would admit that he didn't have many morals, but there were some things he didn't do, like killing people that had no reason to be killed. He could argue with himself that they were strangers—and he had no problem killing strangers—and so their deaths meant nothing to him other than the earning of currency to be used as funds for the war effort, but the counter was that they were strangers whose deaths served no purpose.

They weren't shinobi, and they did not stand in the way of any of his goals. Not directly anyway. They were the first of many missions, yes, but Shin'en still wasn't on board with Yūrei's whole philosophy yet.

But, it didn't matter. The Ghosts of the Blood Mist were on-mission, heading for the same little village that Shin'en and Yūwaku had passed in the early morning, over twelve hours ago.

"Remember," Arashi whispered when Yūrei gathered on the outskirts. "If we're compromised, leave _no survivors_. Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They came from out of nowhere, five assassins in black, wearing white masks with grins. Infiltration into the home of the Xei family was easy, as there was a hatch on their roof, a secret route out of the house underground, a cellar entrance, the back door, and sliding windows, each of which was entered silently.

The Xei household was dark, except for the dining room, where the father, mother, and their four children ate. The oldest child was fourteen, the one below her twelve, the next ten, and the youngest was but a babe of four months. Candles illuminated their meal, and in the shadows beyond, the five assassins waited patiently.

This was a routine mission, one that was carried out almost every other day. There was no reason for the grand planning involved in the killing of a lord, or theft of a bank.

When the Xei's were done with dinner, they went to bed, and the assassins slinked further and deeper into the shadows. When the kids were put to sleep, the parents went to their room, and the candles were extinguished.

And the assassins were given the greenlight to perform their mission.

The parents were silenced in their bed. An assassin from above driving kunai between their eyes.

The oldest child was forever put to sleep when a senbon lightly pricked their skin, and a deadly toxin spread.

The oldest middle child entered the endless dream with a quick slash across the throat.

The youngest middle child had to go to the bathroom. On his way out, he walked into a noose of wire so thin that it could never have been seen in the darkness. The noose was pulled and the head rolled across the floor.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūrei gathered in the living room.

"Is that all of them?" Arashi asked.

Everyone responded in the affirmative.

"Even the baby?"

It was asked simply enough, but Shin'en suddenly felt his blood freeze. Everyone looked at him. From behind it mask, his expression was hidden. The baby had been his assigned kill, and he hadn't done it.

"There's no point in killing the baby," Shin'en stated.

Immediately, he knew that was wrong thing to say, because the air turned sharply, becoming hostile. The four members of Yūrei were suddenly directing feelings of ire and anger at him, and he fought the urge to unseal the Thunder Swords and fight.

"No point," Arashi echoed. "Boy, you do not get to decide what does and does not have a point. Kill the baby. Now."

"Why? What purpose is there in killing something that poses zero threat to us?"

Shin'en could feel the lividness in Arashi's eyes, even though his mask hid them. Like all the masks, the leader's was white with a grin painted along the bottom, and the designs over his eyes were unique as well. Over the left eye was an X made from two wavy lines, and over the right was a colored-in circle.

"The _purpose_ is to complete the mission," Arashi seethed. "A mission we have already been paid to do, and we will complete it to the fullest extent of the orders given—as is the oath of our honor—and the given orders are to kill the _whole_ family in the Xei household. That includes the baby. Your target, your kill."

"Honor?" Shin'en asked.

"Yes, honor. Our employer has paid us in full and up front in the good faith that we will carry out his wishes, and as he has paid us in such a manner, we will see the mission carried out in full. We will not cut corners or exploit loopholes. Our reputation and our honor will not be compromised by your inability to follow suit in your assignment. Now. _Kill. The._ _ **Baby**_."

Shin'en swallowed, but he turned around and entered the nursery. He quietly crept for the crib, and he raised a kunai. The rest of the Ghosts glided in behind them, their black bodies merging with the shadows, their white masks standing proud against the black. They watched him, pressured him, judged him.

Shin'en raised the kunai higher, his few morals clashing. An unarmed, defenseless infant that had no reason to die, or a stranger to him that was but a stepping stone to Yagura's head on a pike.

The grip on the kunai tightened, and his hand started shaking in his internal turmoil. Then the baby stirred, and her big green eyes popped wide open. She looked right at the grinning mask of the ten-year-old, no older than her sibling that was beheaded.

Amazingly, she did not scream and wail, but she wriggled in her blankets, working her pudgy little arms loose, and she reached up at him with a curious little gurgle. Shin'en being short, since he was but a child of ten years, had to stand on the crib's edge to get enough height for the downward stab.

"I hold you to the oath you made just hours ago, the oath to overcome all adversity in the name of Yagura's death. Kill the baby."

The baby babbled happily at something, and Shin'en brought the kunai down. The head was so small and the blade so wide that the infant's head was destroyed. The cracking of the soft bone and the squelching of the soft tissues was almost nauseating. The sight of the red mass and the skin-covered fragments, the eyeballs that lay askew in the crib, the tufts of hair still attached to loosely hanging bits of skin….

Shin'en had seen carnage before, as he had slaughtered masses during his training in the Cloud, but there was something about _this_ that…unsettled him.

Arashi placed a hand on Shin'en's shoulder. "We'll talk more at the hideout. Yūrei, we're done here."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the hideout, the leader had yet to remove the boy for a conversation, as there was ritual to be observed.

A bottle of sake was produced, along with five shot glasses. No one was smiling as the glasses were filled, and when all the glasses had the drink in them, the bottle was hidden away again. Sukina, who was standing next to the silent and cold Shin'en, explained.

"After every mission, this is what we do. We toast to the lives we've taken."

Shin'en's dark emerald eyes, full of frigid malice, said nothing.

Arashi raised his glass. "To the dead."

Sukina, Yūwaku, and Bullock raised their glasses. "And to the next man to die."

The all waited on Shin'en, and he raised his glass. "And to the next man to die."

Despite their differences and their heightened emotions, they drank together as one.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And we are going to kick off the Blood War with giant, man-eating insects, and the graphic killing of babies. For some, that may very well be all you can handle, and you will promptly leave. For others, you've already gone "Eh?**_ _ **That**_ _ **was it? All that hype was just for a dead baby? Come on, that's easy stuff."**_

 _ **We've only just begun.**_

 _ **Next chapter will not be another mission, but instead Arashi counseling Shin'en, and more development of the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist.**_

 _ **I also did not get that job, so updates should be fine for the time being.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	11. Meet the Ghosts

_Meet the Ghosts_

 _ **Well, we hit 200 Reviews, so that's great! Now if we could get the Followers and Favorites up to par…**_

 _ **Anyway, over a thousand people read every posted chapter, so that's amazing.**_

 _ **Anyway anyway, more on Yūrei this chapter. Character development, talking, borderline filler, but it's all crucial, I promise.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en didn't particularly like the taste of sake. It was too tart to him. The few drinks he had with Yugito he said as much, but she had always told him that he would grow into the taste. From what he just drank, he still had some growing to do.

"Shin'en, come with me."

He followed Arashi, ignoring the quick pat on his shoulder from Sukina. The leader of Yūrei walked all the way through the halls to the very back of the hideout.

"We added this part ourselves a few months ago." Arashi led Shin'en to a door embedded in the rock, opening it to reveal a small outcropping in cliff face. The Daimyo's summer home had been built into a small mountain, and Yūrei had carved all the way through it. From their elevation, hundreds of miles of forest could be seen.

"You hesitated in killing the infant. What were your reasons?"

Arashi stood at the lip, arms crossed.

"I already told you," Shin'en replied, voice heavy, "there was no reason for her to be die."

The leader said nothing, and thick silence fell over them. Arashi broke it eventually. "What do you think that baby's fate would've been? What do you think would've happened to it if you had left it alive?"

"Someone would've come for her."

"Someone?" Arashi snapped. He spun on his heel, bearing down. "Really? Who? The neighbors? Were they just going to break down the door because they heard crying? And when would the baby have started crying? Before, during, or after she starved to death? Or would she have died from bacterial infection because her diaper was dirty? And if she had been found and rescued beforehand, given food and her diaper changed, then what? What guarantee is there that some benevolent neighbor would take her in and raise her? And what kind of childhood would that be? Orphaned with no knowledge as to why, your parents murdered for whatever reason, raised by a stranger, and who knows what that stranger would do. Rape her, sell her, kill her, fatten her up and eat her, who knows? And who knows if any of the neighbors would've done a damn thing. They hear her crying and don't care, or they care enough to get her to shut up, and someone else kills her, or maybe they just take her and dump her in the forest for the animals to eat, or they throw her in a river or a fucking pond."

Arashi glowered down at Shin'en, who was glaring at his feet. The man dropped to a knee, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Shin'en, what you did was a _good_ thing. By killing the baby, you spared her from a worse fate. You spared her from starving, from being sold into prostitution or slavery. You spared from growing up with vengeance and hatred in her heart. You spared her from the life of a shinobi, and from the life of an orphan."

"So I am to understand that what I did was an act of compassion?" Shin'en bit out.

" _Yes_. By God, _yes_." Arashi said it with such passion in his voice that Shin'en almost recoiled. "There is a reason we leave no survivors, Shin'en. There is a reason we kill _everyone_. In time, you will come to find that death is the greatest mercy you can give. Death is an escape from all the suffering and anguish we of the living experience. When dead, you no longer have to worry about money, unfairness, or the struggles of the mortal life. We kill everyone so that they don't have to continue life without their loved ones and comrades."

"So in killing the baby…I spared her a life of torment, and reunited her with her family in the afterlife."

"Yes."

"I also robbed her of a chance at a good life, with a successful career, a loving husband, children."

"That is the gamble, isn't it?" Arashi mused wistfully. "Be honest to yourself, though: what do you think the life of an orphaned babe in the war-torn Land of Water would be like?"

"Not a good one." Shin'en managed to sound both somber and angry at the same time.

"Not a good one," Arashi agreed. "Which is why, until we've cut enough cancer out of the Land of Water to where we can handle Yagura, it is _us_ that shoulder the burden of killing these people, because no one else can."

Arashi stood. "I'll ask you one more time: can you, Shin'en Yūrei, handle being a Ghost of the Bloody Mist? Can you suffer through the horrors of war and can you shoulder the atrocities of men, all in the name of your goals and ambitions?"

 _If it means killing Yagura, can you do very bad things?_

Shin'en remembered then, the promise he had made to avenge his first family, and kill their killers, and kill the ones that had given them the orders. And not just there, not just with those people, but the entire Shinobi World as well. So, really, even though he might not have known it, Arashi was asking if Shin'en was willing to do everything he could to bring about his ultimate goal, and that question left Shin'en asking himself:

 _Could_ he?

Could he kill more innocent, defenseless babies? Could he torture whoever with whatever means was needed to glean to required information? What unspeakable things would he have to do? What lengths would he go to achieve his goals? Considering what he had already done in the Cloud, slaughtering Orochimaru's experiments, torturing people, and killing all of his classmates, there didn't seem to be any more lines he could cross.

Shin'en nodded. "I can."

Arashi stared at him, his hard, dark blue eyes spearing into his soul, or trying to. The demigod matched that searching stare with defiance, feeling that this was a test of his resolve. He must've passed, because Arashi nodded.

"Alright. I'll hold you to that. If you ever feel like you're sleeping, go to Sukina."

"I won't need to. I can handle it, all of it."

"…we'll see about that."

Shin'en glared at him. "Why did you call me that, anyway? Shin'en Yūrei?"

"You are part of this family now. Yūrei is your name until you die."

"Part of this family," Shin'en echoed. Part of a family of shinobi, of lying killers, the very thing he hated most. He thought of Yugito, Bee, Darui, Cee, Ei, and Ay. Were they family? Not all of them, not the extent that Yugito was, but he knew all of them. He didn't know any of these Ghosts. "This is a family?"

"Give it time. Come on, I'll introduce you to them."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

This must've been wear the Daimyo used to eat his meals. A big table, the walls covered in expensive paintings, a big fancy chair…all of it dusty as Hell.

A candle provided illumination for this get to know you chat.

"I'll go first," the leader said. "My name is Arashi. I have secrets that are mine and they will remain mine as I choose. What I will tell you is that my clan is all but extinct, my family all dead. I've fought in this war since its beginning, and I've killed many people. I fight in this war to see the end of it, and when it ends, I will leave this land and begin a new life in the world on the other side of the ocean."

"My name is Sukina. I was born in this land, and I watched as my parents were killed in front of me. I used my Kekkei Genkai to escape unnoticed, and I used my powers to survive until Arashi found me and trained me. My favorite weapons are senbon needles dipped in my own favorite toxins, and my favorite tactic is to disguise myself as someone I'm not, and stab my target in the back of the neck. Though I'm more of a stealth specialist, I can kick ass on the battlefield."

"My name is Bullock. I was raised in the Hidden Mist alongside Sukina and Yūwaku, was even in the same class as them at the academy. I never bought in to Yagura's bullshit, even when my parents were pushing it on me. One night I heard them talking about they were going to sell me into prostitution because I was such an embarrassment to them, especially when compared to my older brother who was a rising bigshot Hunter Ninja. So, when my parents came to sell me off, I broke out my little project, and killed them—sliced their heads right off their bodies. Laid a trap for my big brother when he came to kill me, and killed him too."

"My name's Yūwaku. I was born into slavery and raised as such. I had a good master who treated me good, but he was killed by his son who took over the property. He raped me as soon as I had my first period, and I gave birth nine months later. After that, I struck out and lived in Hell for three years while I tried to raise my boy by myself while on the run. We were caught, my boy was killed, and I slaughtered everyone around me except one person. Now I'm in it to claw out every one of Yagura's underlings' eyes."

"So, kid," Bullock asked cheerfully, "what kind of tragic backstory do you have?"

"I was six when Kisame Hoshigaki inspected my orphanage for any potential bloodline users. It was under the guise of unlocking our chakras, but I unlocked mine six months before when a wolf pack tried to eat me. I flared my chakra and almost knocked him on his ass. Later that night, Ameyuri Ringo came by looking for me, but I was swimming two miles away, and so she killed every one of my brothers and sisters along with the matron, and she blew up the orphanage itself with a lightning bolt. I killed her and the twenty ANBU she had with her, and then I swore to kill every last shinobi on the planet."

"And how's that coming along?" Bullock asked with a grin.

"I'm here, aren't I?"

"Eh, true. So, you're the one that did Ringo in, huh? Cool, never liked the bitch anyway."

Shin'en blinked. "You're going to believe me? Just like that? I just told you that I killed one of the Seven Swordsmen when I was six."

"And _we_ just told you all of our backstories. Most of it anyway. I watched my parents die, Bullock killed his parents, Yūwaku was a parent, and Arashi's family is all dead. None of us lied, and so, we believe that you are also not lying to us."

"Yes, but my story's a little more outrageous than yours."

"Fair enough," Sukina shrugged. "Then prove your story since you're so concerned about it."

Shin'en didn't know why, but in light of all that he was just told, how _casually_ it was all just told to him, like the horror of their stories didn't matter at all, and how they were just accepting of his own story like it was everyday news, rubbed him the wrong way, like they had heard a thousand sob stories, all of them made up, and his was no different. It insulted him that it seemed like they didn't believe him, and he took that as an insult to the memory of his family, and so when Sukina goaded him to show proof, he showed proof.

In puffs of smoke, he unsealed the Lightning Fangs in all their gleaming glory.

Shin'en saw the sudden sharpness in their eyes, the light of familiarity as they recognized his swords.

"Do you still doubt me?"

"We never doubted you in the first place," Yūwaku said. "It's just that we've heard these stories so many times that we just aren't phased by them. Like it or not, kid, your story is one of millions, and you're not special. You've lost your parents, so have we. You lost loved ones, so have we. You want revenge, so do we. Granted, you are the first to declare vengeance against all shinobi, but that's still nothing to make your story noteworthy. Really, you're just one more avenger in the world, just like all of us and so many thousands more. Welcome to the club!" she finished with a cheery smile.

Shin'en frowned. "I'm _not_ part of a club, and I'm _not_ just another avenger. Unlike all of you, I can actually make my end goal a reality."

"Yeah, killing all shinobi," Bullock said. "Edgy. Like the razor I slit my wrists with."

Shin'en glared at the greenette. "I'm not joking. I can and will do it."

"And we'll probably end up helping you with that, in some way," Arashi said. "Bullock, enough teasing. Shin'en, I'm sure you have questions for us. Ask, and if we want, we'll answer."

"What clan were you in?"

"I'm not answering that."

Shin'en's eye twitched. "Fine." He looked at Sukina. "What's your Kekkei Genkai?"

"Keijō Henkō. I'm a member of the Shape-Changing Clan, one of the last, anyway. We can use the cells in our bodies to replicate clothing, body mass, height, width, shape, everything. The easiest way to describe ourselves is that we use a chakraless Transformation Jutsu."

Shin'en nodded. He looked at Bullock.

"I'm not a bloodline user. I'm a hundred percent normal ninja with some skill in using wires."

Shin'en looked at Yūwaku, who flashed a fanged smile—wait. _Fanged_? Before his eyes, the yellow-haired young woman began to change. Her hair grew wild, her pupils slit, her teeth serrated and sharp, her muscles defined and large, but it was her hands that drew all attention. They bulged grotesquely, the veins swelling and the skin darkening. The fingers lengthened to hideous size, her nails growing and growing into monstrous claws. Shin'en expected fur to sprout, but no.

Nothing but tanned, humungous monster hands with long, sharp claws.

Shin'en looked at the bestial Yūwaku, not entirely sure what to feel.

"I'm a member of the Neko Clan. Usually, when we awaken our bloodline, we're like housecats, which is why we're slaves most of the time. But, when my boy was killed in front of me, I awakened the other side of our bloodline: The Lion."

"I can see that." Then Shin'en noticed something. "Why haven't I heard of either of your clans?"

"Because our elders and the previous Kage weren't idiots," Sukina answered. "Everyone knows about the Cloud's Kekkei Genkai, the Gale Style, and everyone knows about the Stone's Particle Style. The Magnet Style of the Sand is known, but not how it works. Word of the Mist's Ice, Lava, and Vapor Styles leaked out, but we've still kept some of our secrets. The Leaf is the worst though.

"Everyone knows about their clans. When you see pineapple haircuts, stay away from the shadows. When you see fat people, you can expect Expansion Jutsu. When you see blonde hair in ponytails, expect Mind and Soul Jutsu. Pale eyes? It's the Hyuuga, stay out of taijutsu. Red eyes? Don't look at them, and expect fireballs. Dogs? Combination and Transformation Jutsu. Every clan in the Leaf is known, but here in the Mist, there's still some secrets, still some things the world doesn't know about. Our clans are one of them."

"Any other secret clans I don't know of?"

"There used to be," Sukina grinned.

"Yagura's been that efficient?"

"Yep."

"Oh."

"Yep. So, are you really the magical demigod that was a hot topic of conversation a few years back?"

"Yes," Shin'en admitted easily. "But my dad isn't one of your gods."

This time, Yūrei was actually caught flatfooted.

"Explain," Arashi said.

Shin'en shrugged. "My godly father is Poseidon, god the seas, bringer of storms, shaker of the earth, and father of horses. My mother is Sally, and my older twin sister is Persephone. They're far away, and I'm not saying where."

"I've never heard of Poseidon," Bullock said.

"No one in this land has. If they have, there's a problem."

"Why would that be a problem?" Sukina asked.

"Because gods of different lands don't get along, and are territorial. For a person of the land of Izanagi to know of a god from a different land is a problem, because it raises the question of how was this information gained? Typically, it's because the foreign god is trespassing, which is illegal in divine law, or it's because an agent of the foreign god is trespassing, which gets iffy. Me being here counts as iffy, because I was brought here out of my cradle after just being born by Susano'o. I've never actually met any of my family, but my father is unfaithful to his godly wife, Amphitrite, my mother is annoyingly devoted, and my sister is a naïve idiot whose only purpose in life is to serve as leverage over me to make sure I play nice with the other kids, but the leverage hinges on me actually caring for her, which I do not."

Yūrei shared another look.

"Damn," Sukina said. "That's cold. That's also good, being cold in this line of work is good."

Arashi shifted, and the glacialness in eyes caused the air to thicken. Silence reigned for a minute as everyone tried to figure out what was going on in his mind. Finally, just when Shin'en was going to say something, Arashi asked, "If it meant the death of Yagura and all shinobi in the world right now…would you kill your sister?"

"In a heartbeat."

Bullock whistled. "Fuck, I know I killed my own older brother so I don't have much room to talk, but _fuck_. Kill your own sister—your _twin_ at that, the person you spent nine months alone with."

"Like I said," Shin'en shrugged, "I've never met her, so I have no personal relation with her, and her sole purpose is to be a tie-down."

"Well, this has been insightful," Arashi said suddenly, "but we have a mission. This one's from Mei."

"Objective?" Shin'en asked.

The leader shook his head. "Not you. Your mission, issued from me, is to hold down the fort while we're on-mission. We won't be gone for a day."

Shin'en sniffed. "I'm not a little kid to be worried about how long someone is gone for, but I am trying to figure out why you're just leaving me here by myself."

"So you explore and poke around," Arashi said with brutal honesty. "While we do have a mission from Mei, it's also an opportunity for you to satisfy any curiosity you have about this place without fear of getting caught. We expect you to snoop around anyway, might as well give you the golden opportunity."

Shin'en stood there. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Yūrei, let's go."

On their impromptu way out the door, Yūwaku said, "Oh, there's also no electricity beyond some Sealing arrays, and there's no running water. So if you want to take a bath or you need to potty, you need to not do it here. Kay?"

"That is the second time you've said the word 'potty.' What is wrong with you?"

Yūwaku grinned savagely and raised the monstrous claw that was her hand, as she hadn't come out of her lion state. "Lots of things!"

She disappeared down the corridor, and Shin'en felt them all change clothes, leave the hideout, and speed away. Then, just like that, he was alone in here. With his hydro-sensing, he could tell there were no hidden people watching him, only some rodents in the walls, which, as stupid as this sounded, could actually be trained spies, or at least, subjects of some kind of surveillance jutsu.

But, in light of the circumstances, Shin'en decided to do as basically ordered, and go snooping through his "family's" rooms. First stop:

Sukina's.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Her room was clearly designed to be that of a servant's, which made sense as his room was much the same and the daimyo had to have quarters for all his personnel. Sukina's dwelling was as simple as his, with a bed, a dresser, and a bookcase. The sheets and blankets were a plain orange, and the bookcase was filled with jars of various liquids, each one labelled with a poison, venom, or toxin. Made sense, as Sukina's primary weapon, at least from what he had seen on the assassination mission, was senbon.

Shin'en went through her dresser, opening every drawer, inspecting every article of clothing, and every bottom, looking for hidden compartments. With a stony face, he rifled through Sukina's underwear, a plethora of thongs and bras, all brightly colored.

Not every drawer was filled with clothes, however. One drawer had little knickknacks and toys that a child would play with, clear mementos of her ruined childhood, or perhaps trophies from previous kills. She didn't seem like the type to claim rewards from targets, but who knew? Another drawer was filled with storage scrolls, all of them labeled with various supplies.

Shin'en examined every inch of her room, looking under the bed to find nothing but dust, behind the dresser and bookcase to find more dust, in her bathroom to find tampons and pads, toilet paper, soaps, paper towels, and all other bathroom essentials. The demigod experienced an ADHD moment where he briefly wondered what a pad in his underwear would be like, but he slapped himself for such a stupid thought.

At the end of his looking around, even using his hydrokinesis to try and find air movement into a hidden room, there was nothing out of the ordinary, and he concluded, from her clothes and the neatness of everything, that Sukina was an outgoing person that was organized and wanted to maintain order in her place of residence. All of her clothes had been neatly folded, even her bras and panties, and everything had been cleaned.

The bathroom contained not a hint of grime, the trashcan had no signs of filth, neither did the toilet (which was void of water), and the mirror was cleaned, as was the sink counter.

Although, he did find a laptop that was password protected, and he didn't know near enough to try and guess said password, and the keyboard was maintained with detail. Not one key looked to be any more used that any other, so trying to pick out which keys would be used the password were impossible, and Shin'en didn't know what kind of security measures were in place around the machine.

The machine itself was odd, not really because it was a laptop, but because it was _technology_.

The Shinobi World was no stranger to modern machinery, like televisions, electricity, power cables, LED lights, air conditioning, heaters, electric stoves, indoor plumbing, and not even computers were uncommon. Shinobi even used radio communication devices.

No, the oddity was that Sukina would have a laptop in the first place, for a shinobi had no use of a laptop. There was no Internet in this world, with all information available with a few presses of a few keys. Anything stored online was stored on private databases that couldn't be accessed without special means. Sure, there were jutsu being used and developed to hack into other countries' systems to discover their secrets, but all current jutsu were pitifully easy to block, and development was going nowhere.

Or so Shin'en had been told by the Third Raikage, Ay.

The other thing he had found of great note was plastered on her wall. A board covered in _dozens_ of photographs. Photos of a young Sukina with her parents, photos of her and friends playing, photos of her parents' bodies, photos of corpses he didn't recognize, perhaps the killers, photos of other corpses, photos of Yūrei, together, in pairs and other combinations, photos of them in locations and on missions, but, in the center of the board was the biggest picture:

All four members of Yūrei bunched together and smiling on a sunny beach without a care in the world.

Shin'en's heart ached suddenly at that picture, because it reminded him of a group photo the orphanage had taken once…at that very same beach, at the very same spot. Swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat, the demigod left Sukina's room and headed for where he had sensed Arashi before.

Drying his eyes as he did so.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He couldn't get into Arashi's room, short of breaking in. The entire place was protected by Sealing jutsu, on the door, on the walls, the ceiling and the floors. It was all airtight, too, as Shin'en had tried to turn himself into water vapor and ease his way in, only to find that he couldn't, as there was no air passage. He thought of doing the same through the air vents and even through the plumbing, but those were blocked as well.

Yes, Shin'en could've forced his way in, overloading the Seals with chakra or extreme strength, but where he was curious, he was not… _overly_ rude. Clearly, Arashi wanted his secrets to remain secret, and he had gone to great lengths to keep them secret. However, sometimes it was the lack of evidence that you needed.

A secretive man, a leader, one that disliked Mei Terumi. Highly proficient in Sealing Jutsu. Anyone could make a Seal that locks a door; anyone could make a Seal that reinforces a door and makes it hard to knock down; anyone could make Seal that do the same to walls and floors to make a room protected on all sides. What just anyone _could not do_ , was make Seals that blocked all entry, even down to oxygen particles in the air.

Shin'en couldn't even use his hydrokinesis to "see" inside, try to get a picture of the layout, like the size and shape of the bed, if there was any furniture, how big the room was, etc. There wasn't any water inside the room to use. To be that good in Sealing Jutsu, to be a descendant of a clan that was, in Arashi's own words, "all but extinct…"

Shin'en had to wonder if that black hair was really black.

Anyway, since he couldn't get into Arashi's room, Shin'en went for Bullock's.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was just as plain as Sukina's, with dark green bedding, dark clothing, and the bookcase in his room was filled with spools of wire of varying widths and types, and tools and maintenance equipment. There were also a few photos of him in his younger years, with his parents and older brother. Bullock stood apart from them, neither smiling nor frowning.

The look on his face was of one who understood that he was the black sheep of the family, but instead of being bitter about it he accepted it and didn't care for it.

Shin'en cased Bullock's room like he did Sukina's, looking for anything hidden. Hidden entrances, hidden items, hidden Seals, but he found nothing. However, Arashi's tight room had Shin'en wondering if the same Sealing Barriers weren't up all around the hideout, keeping other things locked tight, and it made him appreciate the fact that even though he was looking hard and thorough, there were still things he was missing.

From his understanding, Yūrei had been here for years, and so that gave them time to look over every nook and cranny to hide things, and devise methods for hiding them.

Satisfied with his snooping of Bullock's room, he left for the last occupied room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūwaku's room was just as plain as the others, only with yellow bedsheets and bright styles of clothes. She was also risqué, because she had more than just an underwear drawer (which was full of G-strings), she had a lingerie drawer filled with frilly, lacy things, garter belts, stockings, and…toys.

Despite his higher maturity, there was still the faintest dusting of red on his cheeks as he beheld the collection of dildos, plugs, beads, and vibrators. When he shut the sex drawer, he made a mental note to avoid ever opening that drawer again.

The other drawer that was of note was the topmost drawer of her dresser, because it was filled baby things. A few bottles, a few pacifiers, a few thermometers, a suction devise for retrieving excess mucus, a few blankets, even a onesie, all of it neatly folded and organized. However, what stood out the most in the drawer was the open package of training pants.

The color was faded and the package was wrinkled and torn in multiple places, and there was only a few of the trainers left out of the original twelve, according to the number on the package. Clearly, it had seen some use, both intended and not.

Deciding it wasn't worthy of any further investigation, as Yūwaku was weird and this was probably just more of her weirdness in action, he shut the drawer and continued his examination of her room. The bookcase was barren, save for dust, and there weren't any impressions in the dust to indicate that something had been there previously.

The bathroom was just as plain as Sukina's, and occupied with all the bathroom essentials and feminine products.

There was one thing that stood out, however, in Yūwaku's room, and that was a refrigerator. It wasn't big, not any bigger than Shin'en's ten-year-old self, and it didn't make sense. Refrigerators ran on electricity, and it was already stated that the hideout didn't have power, and this thing wasn't plugged into any wall socket, but Shin'en could still feel the cold around the fridge.

It was airtight as well, so he couldn't sense into it, but there were also no locking seals keeping him from opening the door. When he did, he almost wished he hadn't.

Inside, occupying the few shelves, were jarred organs. The jars were labeled, too: heart, left lung, right lung, left kidney, right kidney, liver, pancreas, stomach, brain, eyes, esophagus, larynx, small intestine (1/3)—and there were two jars with 2/3 and 3/3 on them—and the large intestine had been cut and jarred the same; there were jars that were labelled as spleen, bladder, gall bladder, veins, arteries, and various muscles and bones.

"What the fuck…" Shin'en whispered. Sure, he had seen jarred organs before, but not like this. Not collected, not so small-

…

 _Small._

Leaving the door open, Shin'en went back for the drawer with the baby things, and retrieved the package of training pants. He went back for the fridge, looking at the admittedly tiny organs, and he examined the package again, looking for the size. After squinting and holding it up to the light for several minutes, he found it:

3t-4t. Recommended for boys 38-50 pounds.

Shin'en looked back at the organs, and pack at the package, then back at the organs. He wasn't a math expert, but he could make an educated guess on how much the owner of these organs weighed. But as he looked at the jars, he caught sight of one he hadn't seen earlier, this one labeled "genitals."

Inside the jar floated extremities, the size of a young boy.

These were the remains of Yūwaku's son.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en slammed the door shut behind him, breathing heavily. He didn't understand why he felt so shaken, as he had seen things like this before….Perhaps it was all the questions that surrounded the situation, and all the possible answers.

Were those _really_ her son's organs?

Why were they in there?

Why did she have them?

What the hell happened to her son?

Why did she keep a package of training pants?

Just… _WHY!?_

 _ **WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON HERE!?**_

Shin'en took deep breaths, going through the exercises Yugito had taught him for calming down and focusing himself whenever he got frustrated or mad. When he got ahold of himself, he concluded that he was going to have to ask someone about this.

With a mental command, the Shadow Clones he had spawned all dispelled, sending their chakra and experiences back to him. Shin'en had made Shadow Clones so he could cover more ground in the fastest manner possible. While he wanted to examine the bedrooms himself, he didn't want to be bothered with looking through every passageway and closet around.

As Shin'en sat at Yūwaku's door, digesting his newfound knowledge, he also reviewed what Yūrei had told him.

Arashi's family was all dead. Bullock's family was all dead. Sukina's family was all dead. Yūwaku's family was all dead. Arashi's circumstances were unknown, but Bullock was going to be sold into the sex trade by his own parents, and he killed them and his big brother. Sukina had been a happy girl, who had watched her parents get killed, before living on the run in the streets. Yūwaku had been a slave with a good master, and then raped by that master's son when her first period came. She could've been anywhere from eleven to fifteen years old when that happened. And then she ran away after birth, raising her son on the run, only to be captured, her son killed, and his organs apparently jarred and refrigerated.

Christ, it was a mass of tragedy.

Dead family everywhere.

And then Shin'en realized three things: the first and second was that he hadn't ingested any sustenance, or gotten any sleep, in the past 24 hours, and the third was that his story and Yūrei's were all the same. That made him sour, for a reason he couldn't explain. His eyes darkened even further and his mouth curled down slightly.

He didn't want to be like _them_. He didn't want any kind of association with _them_. They were _shinobi_. To share common ground with _shinobi_ was like being a _shinobi_. And Shin'en wanted nothing to do with them. Take advantage of their training and techniques to wipe them from the history books, sure. But to be like them…

Shin'en shot to his feet suddenly, almost in a trance.

Human bodies entering his field of range. Not Yūrei. All male. Youngest: estimated age is fifteen. Oldest: estimated age is twenty-six. Chakra natures: Water and Earth. Number: thirty-nine. Trajectory: here. Threat level based on preliminary information: Low.

Chosen course of action: genocide.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And there's Yūrei's backstories. Arashi is a member of the Uzumaki, as has been stated a few times in**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, Bullock's parents were going to sell him into the slave trade because he was a failure to them, and so he killed them and laid a trap for his older brother, killing him. Sukina had a happy childhood until she witnessed her parents' murder, and then she had to scavenge to survive. Yūwaku was born into slavery, yet was treated with kindness by her master, until he died and his son took over. Three years later, her son is killed and she goes feral.**_

 _ **I'll let you figure out her psychological problems, and why she has leftover training pants in her room, and why she treats Shin'en the way she does.**_

 _ **Also, we see the driving philosophy behind the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist, in that death is a mercy, a gift, a preventative measure, and a reprieve from all earthly concerns. Scroll back up to the very top to see Arashi's conversation with Shin'en to refresh your memory.**_

 _ **Anyway, this was an info dump chapter with lots of talking, but next chapter is back with the slaughter and the missions.**_

 _ **Sorry for taking so long with this one. I was out of town in Eureka Springs, Arkansas all weekend to watch the Passion Play. Didn't have any time to write. The Play was awesome though, and I recommend seeing it wherever you can watch it.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	12. Killing Rebels

_Killing Rebels_

 _ **The story continues with a little more development, and some battle!**_

 _ **Maybe some action will get the interest more piqued.**_

 _ **We also hit 10,000 views last chapter. Awesome!**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _With Yūrei_

"You need to stop that," Sukina said to Yūwaku.

"Stop what?" she replied innocently.

"Treating Shin'en like a child."

"He's ten. He is a child."

Even with their masks on, the blonde could feel the dry look given to her by her friend.

"Yūwaku, we've been friends for a long time, I helped you find the pieces of your son, and I know what you're doing. You've done it with three other boys. You're associating your son with them, and it's clouding your head."

"So what if I'm associating my son with Shin'en? You heard the kid: he hasn't ever seen his mother before in his life. He needs a maternal influence."

"Agreed," Sukina responded, "but that maternal influence doesn't need to ask him if he needs to go potty every thirty minutes, or check his pants to make sure he didn't have an accident."

"I haven't checked Shin'en's pants."

"Not yet. He'll kill you if you try. It's a work in progress, but we haven't got him entirely broken yet. Sleep deprivation and starvation have barely set in, and we have yet to pile on the stress. When he starts to crack and break, maybe then you can baby him a little more, if only to soothe your psychological damage, but not now. I really don't want to have clean you off a wall."

"Whatever. Besides, it's not like you haven't babied him a little."

"I haven't asked if he needs to go potty," Sukina deadpanned. "I'm aware that I'm supposed to be his number one cuddle option when he gets stressed to the point where he literally needs comforting physical contact, and Arashi and I have already planted the seeds for that to happen, but I also understand that we're not to that point yet, so I'm not going to push him to do anything. He's a proud and strong little one, powerful and mature for his age, but he's still a child. That'll work for us."

"Man, aren't we evil?" Bullock said as he joined the girls. "Brainwashing a traumatized little trooper so that he becomes our malleable little monster?"

"Hey, now," Arashi joined in. "Mei wants us to humanize him, make him more than a killing machine, and the best way to do that is to steadily crack his supports before breaking him entirely…then build him back up."

"Well if the motive justifies the means…" Bullock shrugged. "I guess we're in the clear, and are not total monsters."

"To wrap this up: Yūwaku, get your head out of your ass. Sukina, keep doing what you're doing. Bullock, you don't really have a role in this, other than to be extra help where needed, and I think it's time we start headed back to the hideout. That bandit group has had enough time."

"I wonder what kind of mess Shin'en's going to make," Sukina said. "Mass destruction, relatively clean, no destruction but a real big mess…"

"Hopefully, if he has any sense, he'll just make an easy to clean mess," Arashi said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hm," grunted Uzu, leader of this group of bandits, "the Water Daimyo's summer home…one of them anyway. Seemingly unoccupied and hidden from the world, and we get an anonymous tip to check this location out."

"Who cares? Let's just get in there and loot the damn place! I can smell the women from here~!"

"Shut up, Aizowa," someone hissed.

"All of you shut up," Uzu barked. "I don't like this, it's too quiet for this time of night."

"Yeah, well, whatever. Look, the house is over there, we're here, no one else is. If you're so worried about it, then let's make it a race against the clock. We'll go in, raid the place for sixty seconds, and then haul ass back out. Sound good?"

"…considering all our other problems, yes. We need the payday. Boys, let's raid 'em!"

There was a loud cheer from the bandits as they all charged from the forest into the field. Perhaps, if it were day, they might've seen someone crouching in the grass, lying in wait like a hungry cobra. As it was, as soon as the first few got close enough, that someone in the grass, sprung forward, lightning trailing from his two swords.

In a streak of light, Shin'en blasted straight forward, cleanly slicing apart a dozen bandits. His tattoo burned against his arm, the numbers sizzling as they went higher.

637

He wasn't dressed in his Yūrei garb, but in a black t-shirt and black shorts. He was barefoot, his face marred only by blood. He didn't wear the mask based on the rationalization that he would be identified as another Ghost, and where he was going to kill all these men, he didn't want to risk word somehow getting out of his membership. With his face revealed, he was just a kid with a pair of sword. Granted, these were iconic swords, and their last owner was a well-known kunoichi, which didn't score him any anonymous points, so his entre purpose here was defeated by himself.

Oh, well.

He wasn't thinking entirely straight, anyway.

There were outcries at the sudden deaths and his sudden appearance, but he ignored them, moving to the next man. They were still in shock, and Shin'en was fast. Very fast. These idiots couldn't have been anything more than genin at one point, and Shin'en was adept at holding his own against Jinchuuriki, Jonin, and a Kage apparent.

He cut through half of the remaining force before the bandits gained enough awareness to act.

Shin'en heard a sound like thunder, and he whipped around. Guns did exist in the Shinobi World. They were weapons of iron and wood, gun powder, and a little metal ball. There was a spark, an ignition, and a launched projectile. It was a fast-moving object, but not fast enough. A chunin worth his salt wouldn't be caught dead with a bullet wound, not even a graze, and Shin'en was much more than a chunin.

With an upward stroke of his sword, the demigod split the bullet down the middle, splintering the ball into dozens of shrapnel pieces. Those pieces sped past him and split apart the bandits behind him in sprays of blood.

The gunman stuttered. "That's…that's impossible…!"

Two of them charged.

"You sonuvabitch!"

"Freaking mother—I cut you, I cut you!"

A few joined those two, and Shin'en sliced low, severing their legs at the knee. They all collapsed with screams and howls. He spun on his heel and severed the arms of one man trying sneak up on him, and with his other sword he cut the man in half. Pivoting, he snapped out with his leg. The bandit was short enough to be caught in the face, and his face was smashed completely in, turning his brain into jelly.

Someone hurled a few kunai at Shin'en. He leapt, the kunai nailing other bandits in their groins. As Shin'en descended, he slashed, cutting several heads in half at the eyeball. He brought his sword down on one bandit's head, splitting him almost in half. Tearing his Lightning Fang free, Shin'en through several more bandits, his weapons cutting through theirs when they raised to block.

The electric nature of the Lightning Fang's made them vibrate, high-frequency oscillations, and they cut through everything conventional like a hot knife through warm butter. It made no difference if it was skin, muscle, and bone, or metal.

Shin'en hooked a leg around one man's neck, and with a spin, hurled the fool in two of his partners. The force of his impact shattered all three skeletons. Three more bandits descended from above, and Shin'en threw one of his swords, and the blade glided through and true. The demigod leapt to intercept the other two, and kicked one into the other. Once more, the force was so great that their bodies broke.

When he landed on the ground, Shin'en drew his sword back and slashed up with both hands on the hilt. A thin flash of light accompanied the vertical bisecting of one lone fool. The two halves fell to the ground with a splat, the insides slopping out.

There were stragglers, and Shin'en dealt with them as they rushed him, one at a time.

Soon, there was but one left: Uzu, the leader.

Shin'en turned to face him, blood dripping from his sword, his hair, his face, his arms, his shirt, and his shorts. He didn't say anything to the last man who standing, who simply stared impassively.

"Impressive," Uzu said flatly. "You killed all my men in less than five minutes."

"And you're just a Water Clone."

Indeed, this Uzu was an imposter. The real one had bailed almost thirty seconds ago. The fake didn't get a chance to attack or flee, as Shin'en cut it down in the blink of an eye. He turned his attention to the trees, where he couldn't see the man, so much sense him. Fascinatingly enough, the bandit leader wasn't sweating or panicked or shaken. He was completely calm as he retreated.

Shin'en did not pursue. Instead, he reached out with his powers, reaching into the water in the trees, and he took control of it. With a jerk of his head, a branch whipped around, whacking Uzu's head clean from his body. Shin'en giggled at the oddity of the phenomena of decapitation via tree branch, but then he clamped a hand over his mouth.

He did not giggle.

Shin'en felt four bodies barrel into his range, but he did not attack or defend, for these four bodies were known to him. The other four Ghosts blurred into existence a few paces in front of him, their masked faces looking over the battlefield.

"Not as bad a mess as I thought there would be," Bullock said. "Though cleanup is still going to be a bitch."

"Not really." Arashi pulled a storage scroll from behind him, and unfurled it. With a half-Ram sign, a cloud of blue emerged and enveloped the area. The cloud was sucked back into the scroll, and sucked in with it was all the gore and viscera of the dead bandits. Arashi rolled the scroll back up, and placed it behind him. "The last one, in the forest, take care of it. We can't afford for anyone to come across it by accident or on purpose, and ask questions about the area. Take this."

Arashi handed Shin'en a Sealing tag.

"Bullock, go with him and show him how to use it."

"Alright. Come with me."

Shin'en followed the green-haired man into the trees. He didn't question how Yūrei knew there was a body out here, as there were several ways they could've known. Most likely, the could smell it. The two arrived at the leader's corpse, and Bullock blinked.

"How the hell was this accomplished?"

"I used a tree branch."

Bullock looked at him. "…how?"

"Demigod stuff."

Bullock stared at the nonchalant boy. "Okay."

There really wasn't much of an argument or debate that could be made with a response like that. Bullock gathered the body and the head, and then handed the tag to Shin'en. "Put it anywhere on the body, and then make the Horse, the Rabbit, and then the Ram Signs. Then channel the molded chakra to your hand, and place it on the tag."

Shin'en as instructed, and then leapt back onto a tree branch when the tag lit up in green fire. The fire engulfed the body and the head, and Shin'en noticed something strange: he could feel no heat from the flames, nor could he smell burning, nor cooking. In seconds, not even ash remained of the corpse, and the tag itself was burned to oblivion.

Bullock, who hadn't moved, looked up at Shin'en. "It's a special incendiary tag that burns only that which it's attached to, so you don't have to worry about catching the entire forest or a whole house on fire. We use these when we don't want anything to be found."

Shin'en dropped down. "Why didn't we use these on the Xei family?"

"The employer didn't ask for the bodies to be hidden. He just wanted them dead, and we did as he asked. Nothing more, nothing less. If he had been smart, he would've asked us to do that, but since he didn't…who knows? Maybe there'll be an investigation, or maybe he'll employ us again to get rid of the bodies because the heat gets to be too much. Anyway, we need to get back."

Bullock left for the hideout, and Shin'en was struck by a strange revelation.

In their own way, Yūrei had punished the employer for his actions. By not getting rid of the bodies, they had created evidence. Granted, the Ghosts themselves had left nothing behind, but that didn't mean that something couldn't be connected. And so the employer's negligence of request could be his own undoing, and if he wanted to pull himself out of any fire he made, he would have to pay Yūrei again.

So, not only did they slight the man for his dark request, but they also set it up to make more money off the man.

Shin'en had to repress a smile at the notion.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When they arrived at the hideout, Bullock immediately disappeared down the dark hallway without saying a word. The rest of Yūrei were in their respective rooms. Since nothing had been said about what to do for the immediate future, Shin'en went straight for Sukina's room.

The door was wide open, and as soon as he approached the threshold, he heard her say, "Come in."

So he entered.

Sukina was sitting at a desk that wasn't there before, on her laptop. It was a rolly chair, and she swiveled around to face him. "Here about Yūwaku?"

Shin'en didn't bother with asking how she knew that, and so he just nodded.

Sukina patted her lap, clearly indicating that she wanted him sit there. He just stood at the door, a light akin to defiance in his eyes. Sukina smirked and continued the battle. With an eyeroll and grunt of annoyance, Shin'en walked over and got in her lap.

He felt conflicted, then. He had done this with Yugito several times, but he knew Yugito, was comfortable with her. Yes, he more or less knew Sukina too, having rifled through her underwear drawer and listened to her backstory, but it felt so odd to be sitting in Sukina's lap like a child. There was a certain amount of humiliation in it, too, because where Yugito was a grown woman, Sukina looked to be in her late teens.

However, regardless of how he felt where he was sitting and the position he was in, Shin'en swallowed and contented himself with dealing with it. He saw the laptop screen and wondered what kind of program this was supposed to be, because he didn't recognize it.

Not that he knew a lot about computer programs.

"So, Yūwaku," Sukina started. She put an arm around his waist, holding him—almost tenderly—and reached around with her other arm to the wireless mouse. Shin'en watched as she clicked some things, and listened as she spoke.

"Like she said, she was born into slavery, but her master treated her and the other slaves with kindness and fairness, treating them more like workers than actual slaves. Yes, a good slave owner…they did exist. Anyway, the master died, most likely because his son murdered him, but there's nothing that can be done about that now. So, the son took over the property, and relished in his power.

"He was a rapist, taking all the women of the property at his leisure, and when Yūwaku, hailed as the cutest among the slaves, came of age, as soon as the first drops of blood came from between her legs, the son took her as well. Nine months after the fact, she gave birth to her son, at the tender age of twelve. She named him Sukoshi. After that, she escaped the property and lived on her own for three years, barely making it.

"Of course, she did make off the new master's son, and he wasn't too happy with that fact, and so he spent some money and had teams put together, posters made, and warrants issued. Really, it is amazing how Yūwaku managed to evade all that for three years, but her luck did run out. She was caught, she and Sukoshi drugged, and they were brought back to the property.

"Instead of raping her again, or trying to form a bond with his son, the new master instead made Yūwaku watch as he had her son _butchered_. They cut him to pieces, flaying the skin from his body, neatly arranging the strips. They cut the muscle from his bones, grouping based on location. They harvested his organs, preserving them, and they cleaned his bones, washing and bleaching them. Then they put everything on a cart, and shipped it out.

"As it turns out, the son had gotten into some business, one of which you'll eventually see for yourself, and that business revolved around harvested body parts from infants and toddlers. All the women he raped had their children taken from them and processed, packaged, and sold either on the black market, or the white market under false pretenses. Maybe a cult needed a heart or some bones, or some sick society needed the muscles for whatever delicacy they were going to serve up next.

"Anyway, Yūwaku was made to watch as the person she loved most was butchered alive and sold away. She was whipped at the end of it all, too emotionally broken to do anything at that point. They whipped her until bits of her bone were showing, and that's when the new master stopped the proceedings. He decided to leave her for the night, and if she was still alive in the morning, then he would rape her again. He bloodline awoke that night as the dying spark inside her erupted, and she killed everyone on the property. The slaves, the bodyguards, the butchers, and the son.

"After that, she tracked down every bit of Sukoshi that she could, killing everyone that had a piece of him whether they knowingly bought bits of a human toddler or not. Eventually, she attracted too much attention with her killing, and she would've been killed if Bullock hadn't found her and spirited her out of that bind. Then he enrolled her in the Mist Academy, and I joined too."

Shin'en listened to that entire thing without blinking, or breathing. "Why does she have training pants in her room?"

"Those were Sukoshi's. She was potty training him on the run, but the high stress of having to constantly _be_ on the run, not trust anybody, the lack of a stable environment…a lot of factors contributed, but the point is that Sukoshi couldn't get it down, and that torn-up package that Yūwaku has was the last one she stole for him before he died. Every time she sleeps, she sleeps with that package in her arms."

Sukina shrugged. "She's damaged, obviously, and she'll never get over it. No one ever just gets over something like that. She asks you if you need to go potty periodically and makes diaper jokes because you remind her of Sukoshi, and she's associating with you. It's a coping mechanism; just put up with it for a month, and she'll stop."

"How do you know all this?"

The orangette smirked. "I was there the whole way through. Using my Kekkei Genkai, I found a living on the property, first as a maid, and then as a guard when the son took over. I helped Yūwaku sneak away, and I helped sabotage the search effort however I could. When she was captured and brought back, I watched her son's death, and I watched as she was whipped."

"And she doesn't hate you for just standing there?"

"There were too many present to do anything. Any action taken would've resulted in all of our deaths, and that wouldn't have gotten us anywhere. At least, in the land of the living, Yūwaku had the ability to do her damned hardest to not let anymore mothers go through what she did."

"Even though she kills their sons?"

Sukina smiled sadly. "That is the irony of it, isn't it?"

They fell quiet after that, but Sukina piped back up after a few seconds. "You look like him, you know. Sukoshi. He had green eyes, though his were a lot brighter, and he had black roots to his yellow hair. He'd be your age now, if he was still alive."

"Oh."

And then Shin'en couldn't help but start doing math in his head. Yūwaku was twelve when she had Sukoshi. She was fifteen when he was butchered, he was three. Sukoshi would be ten years today, meaning seven years had passed since that day, which meant that Yūwaku was now twenty-two…how old was Sukina?

"How old are you?"

"I'm nineteen."

Three years younger than Yūwaku, which meant that…

Shin'en looked up at the girl, her breasts slightly in the way. "You were _nine_ when she was raped?"

"Mm-hm. And ten when I helped deliver the baby, almost thirteen when she was brought back and Sukoshi butchered."

"How old were you when your parents…?" the words died in his throat.

"Seven. A year older than you when your family was killed."

Shin'en fell silent, feeling strange. To distract himself, he asked what Sukina was doing on the laptop.

"Making music. It's a hobby that I picked up. It helps relieve the stress of what I do. Doing this, I can escape the world for a little bit, and dive into a world of my own making. Wanna listen to something I've made?"

Shin'en just shrugged.

Sukina placed her headphones over his ears, and clicked on a track she had made using the software. She could've played one of the subliminal hypnosis tracks she had, like Arashi would've preferred to speed the process of breaking Shin'en down so they could get to the build-up stage, but she didn't. Instead, she played one of the real beats she had made.

Shin'en listened to it, listened to the keys of the piano and the techno undertone, and he tilted his head a little at the build up to the beat drop at forty-five seconds in. The crescendo ended, and the piano and the techno returned. Subconsciously, he drummed his fingers against his leg in time to the beat, and Sukina smiled. She rested her chin on top of his head, and, even though she couldn't hear it as the headphones were that noise proof, she still knew the beat of her own song, and so she drummed her own fingers against Shin'en's waist.

The song reached its finale, and by then, the demigod was tapping his foot. He was a little sad when the song ended, and he was literally about to ask to play another, but Arashi had been standing in the door, waiting.

In the newfound silence of ended song, the leader's voice was heard. "Suit up. We're heading to the battlefield."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Yūrei sped through the trees, Arashi asked Shin'en, "Do you know the Hand Code?"

The Hand Code was the method by which shinobi communicated with their hands in areas of silence, much like Sign Language, but completely different. Put it this way: if someone fluent in SL tried have a conversation with someone using HC, they would both be completely lost.

Instead of verbally answering, Shin'en signed back in the affirmative.

"Good. Do you know the Flux Code?"

The Flux Code was Morse Code but with fluctuations in one's chakra, like when breaking a genjutsu. Effective, when there wasn't a sensor around to pick up on the signals.

Shin'en flexed his chakra in the pattern for yes.

"Good. Did you know there's a system in our masks that allows to communicate verbally without fear of being overheard?"

"How would I possibly know that? What else can our masks do besides allow us to talk and see?"

"Filter out poisonous air, and filter oxygen in the water. You can also cycle through different spectrums of light, seeing in night vision, infrared, and x-ray."

"Oh."

"Be careful, though, the filters and the visions burn your chakra to stay active, so if you use them too long, you can kill yourself."

"Good to know," Shin'en said. "I think you shoulda told me this before we left, but where are we going and what are we going to do once we get there?"

"There's a battle going on for the position offered by a small village. The Rebels are losing."

"Mei wants us to reinforce them?"

"No. Whenever we are called to the battlefield, we kill everyone on both sides. Keeps up the illusion that we're a neutral party whose only interest is ourselves," Bullock said. "Yagura knows it, and Mei knows it, that hiring us for battle is a double-edged sword. That's why we're only called when the situation is that desperate and the forces that expendable."

"Huh."

"Any qualms about eradicating both sides?"

"Hell no," Shin'en snorted. "Means more chances to get rid of more shinobi. I'm just trying to figure out why Mei is willing to sacrifice her own soldiers. I thought she was supposed to be the good guy."

All four Ghosts laughed, and Shin'en frowned under his mask.

"Kid," said Bullock, "if there's only one thing you learn from war, let it be this: there are no good guys and bad guys, just guys."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A battle between armies of shinobi was unlike anything our world will ever see. They didn't charge each other en masse, they didn't line up in formation and take potshots at each other, nor did they hide behind cover and throw things.

Instead, they ran at each with swords drawn, they lined up and performed Combination Jutsu, and they hid behind stuff to throw sharp objects.

Granted, it was all at a pace so fast they could hardly be seen to the naked eye.

Good for Yūrei, they did not have naked eyes. From where they stood at the edge of the forest, shrouded in the shadows of the coming dawn, they could see it all. The small village with large fields of farmland, irrigated via a river that powered the wheels of several mills. The village seemed to offer more in the way of food resources than strategic position.

Anyway, Yūrei could see the enclosing loyalists suffocating the rebels, and without so much as an inkling to a plan, they promptly jumped in with the intent to kill everything that moved.

The Ghost with the blonde hair became like an animal, with enormous, hideous claws.

The Ghost with the green hair used wires, slicing through unaware shinobi, and then hiding, setting traps in the blink of an eye.

The Ghost with the black hair was a juggernaut, using his bare hands to break men.

The Ghost with the orange hair was lithe, and quick. With her senbon needles, she struck enemies, and with skilled taijutsu, she nailed those enemies together, impaling comrades upon their comrades.

But it was the littlest Ghost, the new one, that was the most problematic for everyone involved.

In the fog of war, Yūrei was barely noticed until it was too late for the soldiers of the Loyalists and the Rebellion. However, the riffraff was soon cut through, and only the best remained, five individuals of Yagura's army that were smart enough to jump back at the slightest glimmer of the black-garbed ones in the white masks.

Shin'en was left by himself against the five elite Jonin of this part of the army, the rest of Yūrei watching from hidden places.

"A child?" One man said incredulously. "You can't be serious."

And that's when Shin'en stopped pulling his punches. Not because of the insult, but more because that these weren't grunts. These men had power and skill, their markings identifying them as elite Jonin. That earned them a lot less caution, and a lot more preemptive force.

Lightning sparked around the demigod, black lightning, and then emerald chakra the same dark color as his eyes sprung around him. The force of his chakra created a blast that cracked the ground and kicked up a hundred-mile wind, and in the instant that the Jonin were unbalanced, Shin'en struck with unrelenting force, cutting one apart in the blink of an eye.

The next raised his katana to block, and Shin'en's Lightning Fangs cut right through the metal and the body behind it.

By now, the other three had time to react, and one tried a Water Jutsu. The funny thing with Water Jutsu against Shin'en is that they had no effect. They didn't make him stronger, nor did they hurt or hinder him. Water Jutsu passed around him like it didn't exist. However, that didn't mean that chakra natures suddenly stopped working.

As the soon as the Water Jutsu touched him, a spark of black lightning traveled up the stream and into the Jonin's mouth. Now, the electric shock didn't kill him, but he was stunned enough to where Shin'en split him open from his balls to his brain.

That left two more.

"Earth Style: Mud Wa-!"

With the added speed of the Lightning Armor, and the emotional fuel for revenge, Shin'en moved so fast a cone of air appeared around him, and popped when he suddenly came to a complete halt right next to the shocked Jonin. Shin'en, holding his swords in icepick-grip, crossed his arms, scissoring the man's head off.

The last Jonin had done what the bandit leader had done, trying to make a run for it, no doubt to inform others of what he had seen. Shin'en was having none of that, and gave chase, streaks of lightning curling from behind as he blurred away.

The last Jonin, while moving away fast, was not in fact moving away in retreat, but as bait. He himself was the bait, as his trap had been set.

Shin'en's sole focus was on butchering this last man, and he didn't care how much it took to do so. He had already done a check of the area, and there were no shinobi lying in wait, nor was there a larger force in the back.

The water vapor was suddenly disturbed, and Shin'en sliced with his sword, cutting some kind of straw doll clean down the middle.

And then suddenly he couldn't move, and his vision was split in two separate angles. The Jonin appeared in one view, looking down at him, while in the other view, he was standing away, looking down at the ground.

"Like it?" he gloated. "I was attacked by a Yamanaka a few years back, and he used a jutsu like this, with a trapped doll that if you attack, your consciousness gets sealed inside. I couldn't figure that part out, so I made my own variation, in that your entire body, mind, and spirit get sealed inside. Besides my kids at the top of their class and my wife, this jutsu is my pride and joy."

Shin'en saw him walk away in one view, and in the other he saw the Jonin pick up one of the Lightning Fangs.

"These swords were lost four years ago, when Lady Ameyuri disappeared. Now you have them. I wonder if you happened across her grave and took them, if you stole them from someone else who stole them, or if you're _him_ …the demigod."

Shin'en flared his chakra, and he _shattered_ the Sealing Jutsu of the doll. Everything had a limit. Every chain could handle only so much tension before the links broke. Binding jutsu were no different.

The Jonin was flabbergasted as he saw the emerald blast of chakra, one that emanated from both halves of the doll. In between the space, a figure stood, and you didn't have to look under that mask to know he was both highly annoyed, and extremely pissed.

The Jonin sped forward in a Teleportation Jutsu (which wasn't actual teleportation, so much as a burst of really intense speed) and ran Shin'en through. The problem was, he could liquefy himself and make himself impervious to all kinds of physical damage. A sword blade chief among them.

Shin'en grabbed the Jonin's arms and poured on the Lightning chakra. He didn't stop until he held in his arms a smoking, blackened skeleton. He dropped the corpse and pulled the sword from his sternum. With an application of chakra, a bolt of electricity shot from the Lightning Fang in his hand to the one on the ground, and yanked it forward. Shin'en caught it and Sealed both sword away in the Storage Seals on his palms.

Not wasting any time on reveling in his victory over five elite Jonin, Shin'en sped back to the farm, where Yūrei was waiting on him. To his confusion, they had a girl about his age bound and gagged in their midst, clearly holding her prisoner. When he arrived, he asked in Flux Code _What is this?_

The response from Arashi was this: _A survivor of the Rebels. A messenger girl. No survivors._

Shin'en supposed this was supposed to be a test of willingness to kill even the most innocent of individuals. He had already killed a baby…didn't see how it got any more innocent than that. Shin'en walked right up to the screaming and crying child, and, with a chop of his hand, severed her head.

He looked at Arashi, the look under his mask clearly asking _Was that supposed to mean anything?_

In Flux Code, the leader announced _Mission accomplished. Back to base._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the base, Arashi unsealed the bottle of sake, and handed out the glasses. One by one, each glass was filled, and when they were all full, the leader raised his. "To the dead."

Yūrei raised their glasses, Shin'en included, and declared as one, "And to the next man to die."

They drank, and resealed the ceremonials.

"Come," Arashi said to Shin'en. "I want to see how you handle torturing people."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **So, some action this chapter, and, where it's not necessarily the return of bloodthirsty Shin'en, we see his resurgence.**_

 _ **Next chapter is gratuitous torture, but you've already been warned about that.**_

 _ **We also see how ruthless and bad Yūrei is, killing their own comrades at the drop of a hat, and we see how bad Mei can be as well, willing to sacrifice her own soldiers to make sure Yagura doesn't gain anything. Cruel, yes. But such is the burden of leadership, making the choice to sacrifice the few to benefit the many.**_

 _ **Though, my favorite part of this chapter is what Bullock said to Shin'en about good and bad guys.**_

 _ **Also, the beat that was mentioned when Shin'en bonded slightly with Sukina is "Space" by Alexander. It's on YouTube, with the picture being a satellite dish on a sunny day. If you're curious. If you're not, then eh.**_

 _ **Anyway, Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	13. Beginnings of a New Personality

_Beginnings of a New Personality_

 _ **The story continues. In this installment, we see torture.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto…can this even be considered Naruto anymore?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They leapt through the trees, Arashi and Shin'en, the other three Ghosts back at the hideout. They were in uniform, the leader's a little different than the boy's. The green armor over his chest and shoulders was black, and he wore a black coat complete with black gloves, pants, and boots. Bullock's outfit didn't change much when on mission, only everything became black.

"Did you enjoy it?" Arashi asked through the mask. "Killing the Rebels and Loyalists, did you enjoy?"

"Is this another test?"

"Yes."

"How do I pass?"

"By telling the truth without remorse or guilt."

"Okay…" and Shin'en thought back to not even an hour ago, and what he felt as he carved through men and women alike. "I…I _reveled_ in it. Feeling my swords glide through flesh and bone, the burning on my arm as the count increased, the satisfaction of _finally_ beginning my revenge…the first ones to die, the first of thousands more….To say I enjoyed it would be like saying a Tailed-Beast has a lot of chakra."

Arashi hummed.

"Are you going to tell me I'm a monster and I need therapy?"

"That goes without saying," answered the leader in a flat tone. "No, I'm going to tell you…that's good. In our line of work, it's good to enjoy it, the bloodshed, the suffering of others. If we didn't enjoy it, we'd go mad and commit suicide, our minds unable to handle the grief and the guilt."

"So…become insane or die?"

"More or less. Good people can't handle what we do, so don't bother being a good person. Don't care about what we do, or you'll care too much. Don't think about it too often, or you'll get lost in your head. Learn to enjoy it, or you'll hate it and drown in misery."

Shin'en stared at his leader, and then he looked ahead. "You should write a book."

"I think I will. I'll call it _Arashi's Book of Proverbs_."

"I'll buy it."

On a side note, with the morning sun rising high, Shin'en realized that he hadn't slept in two days, nor had he eaten anything. He didn't say anything though, as Yūrei already saw him as an inexperienced child. The last thing he needed to do was whine about being hungry or tired.

It'd prompt Yūwaku to make a joke about a bottle or breastfeeding, and say something about a nap in a crib or something.

Shin'en shivered at the thought.

Arashi noticed. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah, just trying to get Yūwaku out of my head."

"Eh, give it time. She'll get it out of her system within a month."

"She'd better, or I'll burn her son's remains."

"You will do no such thing, Shin'en."

"And you think you can stop me?" the demigod asked snidely, challenge and borderline arrogance creeping in his voice. "Do you think you and the other four can take me?"

"Yes."

"Pray tell."

The way Arashi had said it though, so brief and easy, like asking an optimist if things could get better…Shin'en almost felt worry grow inside him. Did Yūrei _really_ have a plan for killing him if need be? Was it a plan based on everything they knew about him, and therefore made the plan itself obsolete, as Shin'en hadn't shown them everything, or was it a plan that disregarded everything, and was simply a plan to kill him?

"Nope, that would be a spoiler, and I don't do spoilers."

Shin'en looked at Arashi, and then looked ahead. "Whatever."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thirty minutes of silent tree-hopping later, they arrived at a mountain. Arashi scaled almost a hundred feet up to a ledge that Shin'en hadn't seen from his angle on the ground, but had sensed due to the water vapor around the outcropping. He could also sense the bodies inside the mountain, chained and imprisoned.

"I take it this is where we keep our prisoners for interrogation?"

"Correct. We keep them locked here with drugs, genjutsu, Sealing jutsu, isolation, and sensory deprivation. As far as anyone in this place is concerned, they're in a room somewhere, and not dead."

Shin'en hummed and followed Arashi into the cave blocked by a bolder, a bolder moved with a Hand Seal, and followed him further to the metal door with torches burning on either side. The torches gave off no heat or smell, only light.

Arashi made a Dragon Seal, and the door silently swung open to reveal a corridor with other metal doors. Shin'en could sense the bodies within, all trussed up and seemingly unconscious, based on their heartrates.

"Are we going for anyone in particular, or are we just making rounds?"

"Nope. Someone in particular."

"Who?"

Arashi walked down the corridor to a door in the middle, and opened it without preamble. Lights flickered on, revealing white floors, white walls and a ceiling with rafters. The lights came from an overhead surgeon's lamp, and strapped to a plan metal table was a naked woman.

Her skin was pale, and on her head was a strange apparatus that covered her mouth, her nose, her eyes and her ears, but left her chin and hair visible. The straps that held her down were adorned with barbs that dug into her skin. Blood leaked to the floor here and there, forming dark puddles on the ground. Nobs on top of the belts looked to allow the deepness of the barbs.

She didn't stir at the door opening or the lights coming on, nor did she move at all when Arashi walked to her, but Shin'en could sense her heartbeat increase, and he could hear it too. He knew Arashi also heard it, not that he seemed bothered.

He hit a button on the table that made it tilt forward, bringing the woman up to almost standing. Now she stirred, jerking her head back and forth, making noises that were muffled by what was over her mouth. Arashi made a half-Ram Seal, and the apparatus unlocked with a burst of air.

The woman jerked her back and forth and threw it off her head.

"About fucking time! I was beginning to think you forgot about me!"

She had a worn face, and one of her ears had been cut off, along with bits of the skin around her lower jaw, allowing her gums to be visible, along with letting drool fall. Her eyes were bloodshot, a cloudy, wild blue.

"Oh, who's this? Is it Bring Your Kid to Work Day? Or do you want me to babysit him?" She peered at Shin'en. "Is he house broken?"

The demigod slowly turned his head to Arashi, who motioned for him to follow outside. The door was shut behind them, and Shin'en heard the woman start screaming.

"Who is she? And what does she have that we want?"

"That is Mari Kariko, and what she has is information regarding a prostitution ring. She's one of the proprietors, and she's been surprisingly tight-lipped about giving us information about her ring. We've kept her here for about a week now, and haven't really gotten to the main stuff yet. She hasn't had any food or water since we put her here."

"And you want to see what I can do," Shin'en mused. "Are you expecting me to succeed?"

"I am."

"I'm going to need five buckets of water."

"Okay."

"And Arashi? Don't interrupt me. At all. No matter what you see, what you hear, do not interrupt me."

"I didn't plan to. But do not kill her."

"Just don't get in my way."

XXXXXXX—

"No, wait, stop," Arashi said. "Just tell me what you're about to do so there's no unnecessary drama about to unfold."

"I'm going to mutilate her almost to the point where she dies of blood loss, but I'm going to heal her with the water."

"Heal her with the water? Demigod stuff?"

"Demigod stuff."

"Okay. As we were."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few minutes of gathering water buckets and acquiring tools later, and Shin'en was ready. Before they went back in, Arashi had said this:

"Remember: learn to enjoy it. Honestly, try very hard to make it a separate part of yourself, it'll help you cope."

"Thank you, but I'll be fine."

"I hope so."

After laying out the equipment and setting up the buckets, Shin'en took his mask off.

"Oh~, you're a cutie," Mari said. "I know some people who'll pay high-dollar to get a piece of your plump little ass. Tell me kid: you got any problems sucking a dick? What's the biggest thing you've ever put in your asshole? Come on~, you can tell me! I know you've put something up there before when you were little, when you were a curious little one and found that little hole back there. Come on, what was it~? Just your fingers? A toothbrush, maybe? Your favorite toy? Your least favorite toy? Did you get a little friend to help-?"

Shin'en ripped off one of the belts, then across Mari's thighs. The barbs were yanked from her body, pulling little bits of skin with them. The whore yelped loudly.

"Truth be told, I don't remember," Shin'en answered. "And because I don't remember, I can't give you a truthful answer as to whether or not I engaged in adolescent anal play. Shame on you for asking that, though."

He ripped off another belt, the one across her midsection, under her breasts. Mari yelped again, panting as a sweat broke out across her forehead. "You're untying me…we going for a walk…?"

"Nope."

"You gotta name?"

"Gatou."

"Nice meet you. I'm Mari Kariko. I can set you up with a beautiful woman for the night, or a big, strong man if that's your pleasure~."

"Yes, about that…where's your base of operations? Where are your pimps located? Where is the money counted and sorted? What brothels do you work out of? Who are your enforcers? Where can I find them? Tell me everything that I want to know."

Mari laughed. "Oh, sweetie pie! You've got a lot to learn when it comes to getting answers out of people! You've gotta negotiate, do some psychological stuff, make some promises, deliver some ultimatums, make threats, and then you've gotta draw some blood. You've only done one of those things. Face it, cutie, with your adorable looks, and I'm presuming your virgin pussy, you'll catch top dollar for sure."

"I'm a boy," Shin'en said in response to his "virgin pussy."

"Oh, I figured. But the boys in my care are trained to refer to their assholes as pussies. It helps acclimate them to their roles, and it helps get the clients off better, helping them think they're fucking a girl instead of another boy. They don't like to think of themselves as gay, you know, but they are putting their cocks inside of someone with a cock as well, and well…traps are gay, after all, no matter how girly they look."

"Fascinating. I believe there are questions that you have to answer for me."

Mari laughed again. "So inexperienced! I can tell by how cute you are that you're more likely to kill me instead of getting me to talk."

Shin'en picked up a serrated knife, one that looked like it made for cutting through bone. A glint appeared in Mari's eye, just as one appeared in Shin'en's.

"It's not a question of _if_ you're going to talk…it's a question of how many rounds we're going to get through."

"Rounds?"

Shin'en straddled the woman, but now she was unsettled, if only slightly, and it was enough to make a little apprehension enter her voice.

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you," the demigod grinned. "I'm just going to hurt you…really, really badly." He leaned down close to Mari's ear and whispered, "Try not to struggle too much. You'll make an even bigger mess than what's about to be made…"

With that said, Shin'en leaned back up, grabbed Mari's right breast in his hand, pulled it taught, and brought the knife to the extended flesh. Mari screamed and tossed on the table, her arms and legs still bound, as Shin'en sawed away at her boob. Back and forth the knife violently came, the sharp teeth of the blade biting through some of the tenderest flesh on the body.

A stream of crimson shot from the sheered skin, pouring over Mari's body, splattering across the floor below in a steady cascade. The woman's screaming reached a crescendo, her back arching, when only a scant few millimeters of skin kept her breast to her body, and Shin'en simply ripped the entire thing clean off.

Mari collapsed, sweating all over, her eyes drooping closed.

Shin'en did not allow her rest. He patted her face. "Hey, _hey_! Look—look at this—I want you to look at this." Grabbing her cheeks, he directed her head to his head, the severed globule of fat and flesh dripping blood. Inside, however, were clusters of squishy looking _things_.

"See those?" Shin'en pressed on one, and white fluid leaked out. "That's where your _milk_ comes from. Want some?" He held the breast over Mari's face, squeezing. The blood had mostly been drained, leaving only the mammary glands inside, and so, with his squeezing, the majority of what came out was breast milk. Steadily, the white drops painted Mari's face.

Shin'en grabbed the side of her head, and pried her eyelid open. He dripped some of the milk into her eye, making her twitch and struggle weakly. When the mammary glands stopped their secretion, Shin'en tossed the breast somewhere behind him, where it landed with a loud splat.

Mari smirked tiredly. "You went too far, Gatou…now I'm going to die of blood loss. I'll see you in Hell."

"Not yet."

Water from one of the buckets rose and came the slide over Mari's body. The woman jerked as a strange feeling came over her, a feeling of invigoration, a feeling of renewed strength and energy. Across her thighs and chest, she felt a tickling and itching sensation as the holes from the barbs sealed up. With a sense of awe and wonder, she watched as the water quickly built up her severed breast, staring from the torn skin and mending all the way to the tip of her nipple.

Mari blinked, looking at Shin'en, feeling like anyone did in the middle of the hours after morning and before noon: awake, alert, and alive.

Shin'en leered dangerously at her. "I can heel all the damage I do to you with water. Every cut, every scrape, every bruise, and I can restore your body, lowering the adrenaline and endorphin levels, and accelerating your bones' making of blood cells, effectively revitalizing you."

This time, Mari had no smart retort. Instead, the color drained from her face.

"I'm going to keep this up until I get the answers I want, and when I have them, only _then_ will you have my permission to die. In the meantime… _Round Two_."

This time, Shin'en brought from the table a cheese grater, held it to the light for dramatic effect, and then he brought it down on the same breast he had just healed. Once again, Mari screamed and thrashed as much as she could in her bound state, but this time it was worse. With the knife, it had been a straight line. With the grater, it was dozens of little blades spread out all over, shearing through layers of skin with each pass. Her nipple and areola made it all the worse, with how sensitive those areas were; each bite of the grater's teeth sending terrible fire through her body.

Shin'en was slower this time, too. Pushing it forward…dragging it back…pushing ir forward…dragging it back. The flesh became mangled and shredded, blood pouring out by the cup, milk erupting when the glands were ruptured. Shin'en sheared the fat sac halfway to a nub, and then reached over to grab a thing of table salt…he promptly dumped the entire container onto the shredded breast, making Mari scream as the burning ensued.

"Oh, hush up," Shin'en snapped. "It prevents infection. Let's see, what should I play with next…? Oh! I know! I'll make a couple of incisions, and rip your ovaries clean from your body! Well, not _clean_ , but you get the idea. I suppose after that, we'll move on to Round Three!" he said cheerily.

That did it for Mari Kariko. What she had already gone through, the prospect of _more_ …she broke, and spilled everything that she knew. Arashi whipped out a notepad and a pen, and scribbled away as fast at Mari talked. She gave the name of her chief brothel, her most-visited snatching grounds, the counting houses, the names and whereabouts of pimps, and who the overseers were. Everything that Mari knew, she spilled.

"Anything else?" Arashi asked.

Mari thought for a moment. "My father and my uncle took turns raping me, and they showed my little brother how to do it, and then they let him do it."

"Tragic." Arashi's tone easily implied that he didn't care. "Gatou, finish up."

"Woah, wait. What does 'finish up' mean?" Mari had been healed so she could give her testimony, but pain was still very fresh on her mind.

"Oh, we didn't say?" Arashi started coyly. "Well, whenever we finish up with our interrogations, we harvest the body for organs and other parts. Then we sell the material on the black market for a few extra bucks. I'm sure you can understand…after all, you've done it many, many times."

"W-What?" Mari squeaked in a small voice.

"Oh, we already knew everything you just told us," Arashi confessed, which was news to Shin'en, "I just wanted to see what the kid could do. I'm impressed. Now, Gatou, finish up in here. I trust you can skin a human being?"

"…uh, no, actually. That was something I was not taught."

"Alright. Perfect time to learn."

And then, ironically, Mari the Prostitute Queen was subject to the same fate as Yūwaku's son Sukoshi.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Arashi sealed everything up in assorted scrolls, and placed said scrolls somewhere behind him where they simply vanished.

"Did you really know all that stuff beforehand?"

"Yes," answered the leader. "Fact checked it and everything. We already broke another higher-up of the ring, and everything Mari gave us was just redundant confirmation. Like I said: I wanted to see what you could do."

"Satisfied?"

"Half way. I've seen you torture a woman. Now I want to see you torture a man."

Arashi walked four paces down the corridor, and opened a door to reveal a chamber exactly like the one Mari was being kept in. In this one was a naked man strapped the same way Mari had been, with barbed straps across his wrists, ankles, thighs, and chest, and he had a sensory deprivation device over his head as well.

"Does this one actually have pertinent information, or is he just another test?"

"Both. We captured this one just a day before you arrived. From what we've gathered, he's part of a guard detail for a man that Yagura has under lock and key. We want to know why." Before Shin'en could ask any questions, Arashi continued. "While we can infiltrate the place where this man is being watched, we want more information first. You're going to get it. I'd tell you to be careful, but you clearly don't have to worry about restraint. That's good. It means you can go as far as necessary without fear of overdoing it, because you can reverse everything you do."

Yeah, as long as he had the energy to do so. It was midday at this point, meaning he had gone two and a half days without rest or sustenance. He was beginning to feel it, too. Still, he wasn't going to bring it up. He wasn't going to whine or complain. When he got the chance, he would sleep, and when he could, he would find food.

Anyway, Arashi woke the man up, and it was the standard exchange: "Where am I? Who are you?" "You have knowledge we want, we're going to get it." "I'll never talk, do your worst."

Shin'en smiled at the last one. "Okay."

Like Arashi had instructed, the demigod tried finding _joy_ in what he was doing, and he liked that name for stuff like this… _Gatou_. It was helping, subconsciously, psychologically. It was Gatou doing this, Gatou who enjoyed this.

Anyway, Shin'en brandished a scalpel at the man, whose name was Rokuro Okajimo. He kept his eyes focused on the ceiling.

"Last chance," Shin'en said. "Sure you don't want to save yourself the trouble?"

"Fuck you."

"Your choice."

Shin'en grabbed Rokuro's penis, and made a five-millimeter deep cut across the urethra, making the man scream and struggle. Shin'en left the belts on for this one, and he kept a firm grip on the bleeding member in his hand. He made another incision, this one at a 45-degree angle, and another, and another. Rokuro was screaming and wheezing. He had even thrown up, but Shin'en had jumped away to avoid that one.

He returned to his subject, and extended a finger. He brought his finger close to the mangled penis, and then thought about what was he fixing to do, and stopped. Then he grabbed a screwdriver and jammed it into Rokuro's urethra with zero abandon, working it as deep as he could work it, making the man scream and cry.

Rokuro blubbered incoherently at this point, clearly not made of the same stuff Mari had been made of, and so Shin'en decided to end Round One. With an application of water, he healed the Mist ninja's mangled manhood, reduced the endorphin and adrenaline levels, brought the heartrate down, and restored homeostasis to Rokuro Okajimo's body.

The man panted as he came out of shock. "Wha-? Huh? How-?"

"Yeah, this is your last chance to talk before I go after your nuts next. So, care to talk, or do I get to play with your balls?" Shin'en brandished a spring clamp and a wrench with a disturbing smile.

Rokuro shattered. "We're guarding Shou Nagai in his house along with his four-year-old daughter Satomi and their dog, Sumire, while he develops a jutsu to combine animals and humans into a new form."

"Oh. Thank you."

"Are you going to let me go now?"

"Yes."

Shin'en cut Rokuro's head clean from his body. Swift death, a painless one. Arashi looked at the boy.

"What? He was helpful."

"You. Mutilated. His. Dick."

"And? I healed it."

"There are some lines that should not be crossed. Dick torture is one of this lines."

"Yeah, well, I crossed it. And you suck it up! You're the leader of a black-ops team that does bad things. Act like it."

"Whatever. Separate this guy, and let's get back to base. We have a mission to prepare for."

"What mission?"

"We need to make sure this experimental jutsu doesn't fall into Yagura's hands."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I'd like to say that was fun to write, but that would be weird.**_

 _ **So, yeah, Arashi has laid the groundwork for the first of many of Shin'en's alternate personalities: Gatou, the Torturer. That'll be fun in coming chapters.**_

 _ **Anyway, next chapter features another mission, so stay tuned!**_

 _ **P.S. the Review bug is back. Is**_ **War** _ **not what everyone expected, or is it the same old, same old? The "I can't think of anything to say/I only Review because_." I mean, when a thousand people read each chapter and only ten Review, I get worried that I pissed off my fan base. I try to keep you guys happy as much as I can while also following my outlined plot, but I can be flexible to help. So, if there actually is grief between you and I, please, let's try to sort it out. If there isn't…I don't know, let your next Review just be a random letter.**_

 _ **P.P.S. I'm sorry. It's just that Reviews are the means by which I measure how good I'm doing, and when I don't get more than, like, fifteen in the span of ten hours, I feel like I did a bad job. I need to lower my standards, I guess.**_

 _ **P.P.P.S. Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	14. The Chimera Jutsu

_The Chimera Jutsu_

 _ **Eventually, the day is going to come where 40 Reviews just happens. Today is not that day, but it might get here faster if you LAZY PEOPLE STOPPED BEING LAZY!**_

 _ ***Gives two middle fingers to people who said they were lazy**_

 _ **Thank guys for the support, though.**_

 _ **Anyway, I'm sure many people have already figured out what this chapter is going to be parallel of, but that's no reason to skip out on it. There's a twist to how this one ends, and I like to think it's pretty gruesome.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You did what to his dick!?" Bullock screamed at the top of his lungs.

Arashi had finished debriefing Yūrei about Shin'en's torture methods, or rather, _Gatou's_ torture methods, and this was the fallout.

Yūwaku had some choice words, too. "I mean, it's effective and all, but _damn_."

"I know," Sukina said. "Like, there aren't many lines we aren't willing to cross, but another woman's boobies? Ouch."

Shin'en huffed petulantly, placing his hands on his hips. "All you professional killers bitching to me about hurting people. You all disappoint me."

Bullock grabbed Shin'en by the front of his vest. "THE BRO CODE!" he roared. "Even among killers the Bro Code exists, and the Bro Code clearly states that one bro does not bring any harm to another bro's dick, unless that bro deserves it! That bro did not deserve it!"

"Well, it's whatever, because I did it, and it's over with."

"Nevermind the fact that you used a _cheese grater_ on a fellow girl's boob!" Yūwaku snapped.

"She was a pimping whore," Shin'en defended. "What I did was payback for all the girls she's hurt."

"You mean it was Gatou that got payback," Arashi threw in.

The demigod just nodded. "Yeah, it was Gatou that got the payback."

"Good, don't forget that part," Arashi said. "Listen up: thanks to Rokuro's confession, we now know what's going on in that house."

"Are we going to kill them all?" Shin'en asked.

"Quite the contrary. We're going to replace the guard detail and help Mr. Nagai complete his work on the Chimera Jutsu."

"Just like that?"

Arashi nodded. "Just like that."

"…okay, then."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On the way to Shou Nagai's secluded house in the forest no less than a hundred miles away from Yūrei's base, headed east, Bullock just couldn't let it drop.

" _His. Dick."_ The wire user hissed.

Shin'en brandished a kunai as they leapt from tree to tree. "If you don't shut up about it, I'm going to do _worse_ to your dick."

The demigod could feel the glower from behind that mask, but Bullock pulled away. Sukina took his place.

"And I'll do worse to your boobs."

"Ouch," she said, hurt in her tone. Shin'en's blood constricted briefly at hearing the way she said that, but he looked ahead and fought down the feeling.

"No, what I was going to ask was why the breasts and the genitals first?"

Shin'en shrugged. "They're the among the most sensitive areas on the body, filled with the most nerves. Arashi wanted to see how far I'd go and what I'd do, and I showed him."

"Don't you feel anything for them though? Mari was raped by her father, uncle, and brother, and Rokuro was just a grunt in the wrong place and the wrong time, and you made their deaths a prolonged and painful one. Doesn't that bother you any, knowing how far you went for such sad people?"

"No," Shin'en answered sternly. "They're strangers to me that had something that I wanted, and they wouldn't give it to me, so I took it. Nothing but obstacles to be overcome."

"…you've done this before," Sukina surmised correctly. "Tortured people."

"Part of my training in the Cloud was causing agony to people, and not feeling anything for them no matter how much they begged and cried and pleaded. Kill my feelings."

"How old were you when you first tortured someone?"

"Six. I sliced his fingers off with a scalpel, and kept his hand splayed with Lightning chakra so he wouldn't move."

Sukina hummed.

They flew on in silence, rocketing through the trees at no less than 200 miles per hour, yet silent as the grave. The forest vanished, and Shin'en sensed a large, yet shallow, body of water ahead.

Just before they got to it, Arashi came to a dead stop and held up a fist, making the rest of Yūrei stop.

The sun was beginning its decent across the sky, but this country wasn't called the Land of Water for no reason. The climate worked in such a way that if it wasn't humid as shit, it was foggy, overcast, and wet. Even though it was midafternoon, here, in this part of the country, it was such a dreary cloud cover it almost seemed dusk. Thick mist hung over the ground and thinned the higher it went, but it was not so thick that the vegetation couldn't be seen.

A tree here, a tree there, cattails and other aquatic vegetation.

"Marshland," Arashi said. "We can go around, or try to go through it. Shin'en, what do you know of the Land of Water's marshlands?"

"Prior to right now: nothing. But I can feel them, the animals that are hiding in the ground and in the water, the plants that emit poison, and the traps set by humans."

"Very good," Arashi complimented. "Do you think we should go through, or around?"

It should be noted that the leader of Yūrei, the group of highly trained assassins and soldiers, was weary of these marshlands.

You don't fuck around with the marshlands.

"Through," Shin'en answered. "I can literally feel where everything in the mist is at, and so I can tell when to dodge a snake or a bug, and what plant to avoid, and when you're about to step into a trap. As long as I'm with you, we're good."

"Okay then," Arashi said simply. "Shin'en, take point."

And so he took point, blitzing over the marshland. He zoomed past carnivorous plants still in the process of digesting animals and humans. He cut apart massive snakes with mouths wide enough to swallow cars, and he passed by traps with decaying corpses caught in them.

Yūrei even came across one such trap that had snared some children, children that no doubt had strayed too far from home and got lost. Birds were feasting on the remains, and not a single Ghost gave it a second thought.

True to Shin'en's claim, he led his comrades through the marshlands without incident, revealing every potential mishap and neutralizing it as soon as he found it.

After clearing the marshland, it was only twenty miles to Shou Nagai's secluded residence. When Yūrei arrived, they spent thirty minutes casing the place. It was hidden, mostly, in a bayou, strung between trees, off the ground. It was a simple place, couldn't be any more than six rooms, and it was protected with traps and guards.

Inside, Shin'en could feel the water inside the body of a man, a little girl, and a dog, as well as a bear and another human male. The girl and the dog were away from the men and the bear, and Shin'en could feel the chakra being molded to perform a jutsu. He could also feel the water in the bodies of all the surrounding Mist ninja.

"So, are we just going to kill them and announce ourselves, or are we going to announce ourselves, make a lie, and hope they buy it?" Shin'en asked.

"Kill the ninja, quietly, and then we'll introduce ourselves to Shou," Arashi answered.

Yūrei nodded, and they set about their tasks. It was easy, for these Mist ninja were but chunin, at best. A skeleton crew for all that it was worth, as Shou was supposed to be a secret. You didn't send your top agents to protect a secret, as their absence would generate questions, so you sent peons.

Even if they were decent ninja, Yūrei was still better. Even Shin'en, despite his more juggernaut-style approach, could be stealthy when needed. He had swallowed enough pride to allow Yugito to teach him to be quiet, in her own words, "like a hunting cat."

So, like a hunting cat, Shin'en used a kunai and slit his chosen target's throat.

The bodies were piled and burned.

Yūrei waited on Shin'en's signal to infiltrate, as he could sense what was going on inside the house. When the signal was given, the Ghosts entered silently, and decided to make a little theater out of the event. They made themselves comfortable around the living room, and so when Mr. Shou entered, he found a bunch of individuals in black clothes and white masks casually lounging about his house.

Shin'en gave a peace sign from where he was sitting next to Sukina.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shou Nagai was a tall enough man, a big enough one, too. He had a toothbrush mustache, a wide nose, dark brown hair, and he wore glasses. One lens was different than the other, being thicker and bigger, making his eyes appear to be two different sizes. His outfit was simple, being a pair of beige pants, a blue undershirt, and a darker blue button-down.

"Are you the new guard detail Yagura has sent?" Shou asked.

"No," Arashi answered. "Mei caught wind of your experiments and wanted us to bring you out of Yagura's service, and into that of the Rebel's. Upon completion of your jutsu, we're going to escort you out of the country, and give you new identities."

"Oh." Shou didn't sound too pleased with what he had been told. "I take it you killed the other guards, then?"

"Correct. We didn't want conflict to ensue between our two parties."

"Small favors," Nagai muttered.

"I'm detecting a problem between us, Mr. Shou," Arashi said as he stood.

"Oh, no. No problem at all, Mr. Shinobi," the man smiled. "It's just that I knew those Mist ninja by name they'd been here so long, and my wife was killed by the Rebels. Collateral damage from a failed assassination attempt turned battle in the streets. She was on her way home from the market with breakfast for our daughter."

"I am sad to hear that," Arashi said.

"No, you're not."

"Correct. Now then, we can do this in a civilized manner, like gentlemen, or we can torture your baby girl until you get the jutsu down. I'd imagine progress will be quick with lives on the line."

"No need for threats, Mr. Shinobi. I appreciate the help."

"Excellent. Shin'en, Yūwaku, help the good man, here. Sukina, Bullock, you're with me."

The latter three left, leaving Shin'en alone with Shou and Yūwaku. The demigod felt Arashi's chakra start pulsing outside in Flux Code, and he translated the message as _Play nice with daughter._

He Fluxed back _Why_

 _It could help speed process_

 _Fine_

So Arashi wanted him to make friends with the girl, Satomi, who was currently in her room playing with the dog, Sumire, so that they could ease Shou's stress by at least getting along with his daughter and keeping her happy and protected.

Alright. If it meant getting closer to Yagura's head on a stick, then he would play nice with the little one.

"Shin'en, go inform Satomi of the new situation. Mr. Shou, show me what you've been working on."

He nodded and cast a hard glare at Shin'en, but knowing there was really nothing he could do otherwise, he led Yūwaku in one direction, leaving Shin'en to go in the other, as Satomi's room was opposite from the testing room.

He knocked twice, and the opened the door. Satomi, the four-year-old daughter of Shou Nagai, was cuddled in her dog, Sumire's side. The dog was a massive specimen, covered in white fur, and deep black eyes.

With the door opening, Satomi looked up, and tilted her head, making her dark black braided pigtails move. Her green eyes stared at him inquisitively, and Shin'en's breath hitched. That shade of green was just like his sister's, and that black hair just as dark.

"Who are you?" Satomi asked. "I'm Satomi Nagai, and my daddy's gonna change the world!"

"I'm sure he is. My name's Shin'en. I'm part of the new team sent to watch over you."

"Awe, what happened to the others?"

"They left."

"Awe~…" Shin'en thought she was about to cry, but she immediately perked up. "That's okay! I didn't like them anyway, they never played with me. You're going to play with me, though, right?"

"Yes."

"YAY!"

The dog barked and wagged its tail, rising to its feet.

 _Oh, boy…_ Shin'en thought.

Sumire padded over, and was so big that it licked the side of the demigod's head and was still taller.

Shin'en pointed a finger at the dog. "No."

The dog licked the front of his mask and messed up his hair.

Satomi giggled and Sumire sat on its haunches, displaying its lack of genitals as per law.

Shin'en's eye twitched as he figured this was his life now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūwaku walked into the experiment room and raised a brow under her mask, trying to figure out what the mess in front of her was.

It used to be a man, she supposed, and a bear. They had seemingly fused and rejected each other. The body was the size of the bear, but the forepaws were human arms, covered in black hair, with claws ripping out at random places in the hand. The head was human, but the lower jaw was like that of a bear, making for one truly hideous look. Beyond that, the failed hybrid's midsection was inside out, its guts all visible through a membrane that sagged to the floor.

"This has been the result for the past three months," Shou said. "I perform the Chimera Jutsu with Sealing jutsu and Hand Seals, but no matter what I change, if it's the Seal or the jutsu formula or both, I always end up with a hideous amalgamation, and it costs some poor soul their life."

"I see," Yūwaku said dispassionately. "I'll need to see the jutsu be used, and I'll need to bring Arashi in here to examine the Seal. We'll also need to review any and all notes you've taken in regards to the jutsu."

Shou nodded. "Let's get started."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Daddy, can I go play outside?" Satomi pleaded with wide eyes. It was dusk in the Land of Water, and where this time normally prompted parents to bring their kids inside, Shou had the benefit of knowing that his daughter had a guard detail of trained killers.

"Of course you can, sweetie. Just make sure one of the shinobi is with you, and that Sumire is within barking distance," the father smiled behind his glasses.

"Yay! Come on, Shin'en! I want to show you my special place!"

She tugged the demigod out of the suspended house, the dog following along behind.

The rest of Yūrei suddenly materialized in the living room, and they all set about improving Shou Nagai's Chimera Jutsu.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Satomi's secret place was a massive tree, one that had been hollowed out, either by animal or by nature, Shin'en couldn't tell. The girl was bubbly as ever, her green eyes sparkling immensely as she smiled the brightest smile.

"I found it when Sumire and me got lost one day when we went exploring. A storm came and we hid in here till it stopped raining. After that, we found our way back home, and I never told anyone, not even my daddy!"

"Then why are you showing me?" Shin'en asked.

"Because I like you, that's why." And then she said shyly, "And you're also the first friend I ever had…all the other ninja never wanted to play with me…"

Shin'en didn't know how to respond or feel about that. He had never had friends in his life. He had siblings at one point, but they were all murdered and then he watched it happen a thousand times over. At the academy, he had been very pissed off at his situation, and therefore projected an aura of cold unwelcomeness to everyone around him, and he viciously beat anyone that irritated him.

Shin'en even beat one kid to death for bringing up his dead family…and then he killed the kid's parents in the middle of the night…and then he killed his entire class in a forest exercise.

Yeah, friends were not something Shin'en had, and so for this little girl to call him a friend…he didn't know what to do.

So, he took his mask off and revealed his face.

"Woah~," Satomi gasped. "When I grow up, we're going to get married."

Sumire barked in assent of this plan of action.

Shin'en just reached out and patted her head. "I'll wait for you."

"YAY!"

A branch snapped, and where Satomi flinched and his behind Shin'en, and Sumire bared its fangs, the demigod just stood there, facing the encroaching darkness of the forest. Oh, he had sensed the predator coming since it entered his area of hydro-sensory awareness, and he wasn't worried.

A massive centipede came scuttling out of the shadows, long as a bus and as thick around as the average car. Satomi screamed, as anyone would scream at seeing such a creature, but Shin'en remained calm. A monster like this was nothing for him to be worried about. The centipede was hungry, and it gave a loud screech before scuttling forward at a break-neck pace.

It was just about to swallow them all whole, but then Shin'en vanished. Satomi experienced one dreadful instant of heart stopping terror, a minute feeling of despair at the realization that she had been abandoned by her friend, and that she was going to die a horrible death, all alone.

And then Shin'en smashed down on top of the centipede, shattering the shell and crushing everything important underneath in the blink of an eye.

A moment passed, and then Satomi ran and jumped into Shin'en's arms, crying. Shocked and surprised, he hesitantly reached up to support her weight, and pat her head a few times before softly running his hand back and forth over her head.

Shin'en's mind drifted back a few years, to when his brothers and sisters were still alive. A little girl named Keiko, three years old, had bedwetting problems. Every night she woke up wet, she would run to him for comfort, jumping into his arms and crying until she was done.

Satomi reminded Shin'en of Keiko, and Satomi's green eyes reminded him of Persephone, his loathed older sister, his replacement in that world, the one who lived the happy life he could never have because of his chosen path. He had been jealous of his sister once, but then he had killed such an emotion in him. Jealousy of a peon was unbecoming.

And yet, because of this little one's eyes, those old feelings were stirring in him…but not the old feelings of jealousy, but those of longing.

Shin'en squeezed Satomi tight, and suddenly he fought the urge to crush her. He succeeded in his battle, but he now realized that Satomi was poison to him, an innocent little soul that brought forth too many memories and experiences. He needed to limit his time around her, lest she trigger an emotional response in him that left him doubting his role in this war.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en asked her if she knew what her father was doing, experimenting on people like he was to make a new jutsu. She just shook her head, and cried, "He's just going to change the world!"

They returned to the Nagai suspended household when Satomi got too tired to stand, and she fell asleep in Shin'en's arms. She actually snuggled into him, and Sumire gave the demigod an expectant look like _Take care of her or I'll bite your nose off._

Shin'en indicated the dead centipede, but the dog remained strong in its stare.

Inside the house, all attention was drawn to the trio when they entered.

"Thank you for looking after my daughter," Shou said.

Shin'en just nodded, and headed for the girl's room. He tried to set her down, but she clung tightly to him, refusing to let go in her sleep. With a quiet growl, he pried her from him and set her down. Satomi stirred and twisted, but she settled. Sumire hopped onto the bed, and positioned itself in such a way that it was basically rapped around Satomi.

Shin'en nodded and joined the others in the main room. "Any progress?"

"Much," Shou said. "We'll need to perform tests tomorrow. I'm tired and performing experimental jutsu while tired is not a good idea."

Shin'en nodded, not even questioning it as he himself was both tired, hungry, and felt that he needed to distance himself from the girl that stirred so many things in him. Yūrei packed up and left the Nagai house.

"Are we going to leave without a guard detail for the night?" Shin'en asked.

"We left Water Clones," Arashi said. "For a few hours until morning, they will suffice."

"What are we going to do in the meantime?"

"Train. There are things in the marshland that we can do to sharpen our skills."

"Okay."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Satomi's eyes cracked open when her door was opened.

"Daddy…?"

Shou smiled reassuringly. "It's okay, sweetheart. Daddy just needs your help real fast. Come on. You can come too, Sumire."

The dog barked once.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After a full night of killing things and sniffing out traps without using his hydro-sensing, Shin'en was only a little more tired. The water in the mist rejuvenated him slightly, gave him enough strength to not fall over instantly, and slightly satiated his hunger. Before the morning did come, however, at the darkest part of the night, Arashi felt a foreboding in him, and so he sent Shin'en to check on the Nagai household.

The demigod wasn't too fond of this development. He was tired and hungry, making him irritable and grouchy. He was also a child, making him doubly irritable and grouchy. Yūwaku had already made the joke that he missed his naptime and needed his bottle.

He nailed her in the stomach and stormed off.

Upon arriving back at the house, he jumped and entered. If he had been of more sound mind, he would've used his hydro-sensing to inspect the insides of the house, but as he did not, borderline delirious as he was, he became nearly panicked when he got to Satomi's room and found it empty.

Emotion driving the ten-year-old now instead of logic, he quickly crept through the house checking every room from one end to the other, finding nothing and no one. At the end of his search, there was but one more room: the experiment room.

Shin'en gripped the nob, twisting it so carefully that it made no sound, and he gently pushed the door open. A dim light cast faint illumination about the room, revealing it to be an area, about as big as the regular classroom, of metal walls with a barrier between the door and the rest of the room, a clear safe area to watch what happened on the other side.

The dim light and the sheer quietness created an eerie atmosphere, one that had Shin'en on edge. He drew a kunai, and crept in. Now of sounder mind, he was using his hydro-sensing, and he what he detected both confused and relieved him.

Yet ever was there that present feeling of being threatened.

Satomi was naked on the other side of the barrier, and crouching before her was…a dog. Or at least, a dog-like creature. There was no sign of Shou, and the Satomi's clothes were discarded in a corner.

The girl turned, and she brightened. "Shin'en! Look, my daddy made a perfect Chimera! See, it even talks!"

Shin'en looked at the Chimera, his eyes sliding inside his mask. The animal raised its head to look at him with blank eyes.

"Hi…there…" it said in a thick, slow voice.

The demigod was more creeped out by that than impressed. His eyes slid back to the girl who wanted to marry him when she got older. "You're not Satomi."

She blinked. "Huh? Yeah, I am."

"No, you're not. Satomi doesn't know about the Chimera Jutsu."

And just like that, the child's face became hard and like stone. "Well," she said in a voice more serious and steely than what a child's should have been, "I lied to you when we were playing in the woods. I've known all about my father's work. In fact, I was the one to begin work on it, you idiot."

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I am Satomi Nagai, but I'm not an innocent little girl." Satomi grinned cruelly. "I'm a _prodigal genius_. I was only out the womb for a few months before I started making speech, and I found a way to tell my parents what I needed just by making a certain sound. Hungry? Make this sound. Need a clean diaper? Make that sound, and so on and so forth. I discovered the groundwork for the Chimera Jutsu when I was in town with my mother one day, a pirate had it and I stole it. Of course, it got my mother killed, but with all the damage done, it was easy to convince Shou that it was a battle between ninja.

"With my mother dead, it was easy to steer him in the direction of revenge, and convince him to work on the jutsu until he worked himself to sleep. I went over it and revised as many times as he did, but neither one of us was able to get it, no matter how many alterations and variations we used. Then you and yours come along, and the new formula the rest of you made seemed so promising that I couldn't wait. My father came in because he wanted my help in folding the laundry real fast, the stupid oaf, but I knocked him out and set up the jutsu…and _it worked_."

Satomi patted the Chimera's head. "Of course, I did lose my dog in the process, but you can't make an omelet with breaking a few eggs."

"…why?"

She looked at the masked ninja. "Oh? Is that hurt I hear in your voice? Are you stinging on the inside because the sweet little angel you knew is actually a cunning prodigy?"

Oh, Shin'en was stinging alright.

"Well, if you must know…" Satomi's face turned serpent-like. " _It's because I enjoy the prospect of the carnage_." She laughed a horrible laugh for a child. "Watching the idiot sheep slaughter each other for their inane causes, stoking the flames of both sides until they burn each other out…" a shudder passed through her. "I'm almost five, and I'm already smart enough to work a jutsu from basically scratch. I'm the greatest mind this world has ever seen! I'll surpass everyone on the planet, and become its new god! And don't look at me like that. I know I'm only four, but look what I've accomplished."

Satomi indicated the merging of her own father and her dog.

"Just think of what I can with an improved version, once I get even smarter and stronger. Imagine: an age where Jinchuuriki and Tailed-Beasts don't exist, but merged forms of them did. New beings, gods made flesh by my hand, loyal to me and only me." There was a far off look in the child's eye as she imagined herself at the top in her fantasy world.

Shin'en, however, felt like something had been ripped out of him. This girl had reminded him so much of his little sister Keiko, and brought forth buried feelings of his big sister Persephone. Satomi had stirred a spark in him, one that had tried to bloom before he forcefully killed it, but not as much as he had thought, because now that little ember had been violently snuffed out, and it left him feeling cold on the inside.

Cold, bitter, and betrayed.

"And don't think you can stop me, either." Satomi made a Ram Sign, and a Seal sprang about around the experimentation room. Shin'en couldn't move. "It's a Paralysis Seal. I can activate it with a sign and that's it. I don't have to spend any of my own small reserves of chakra to keep it going or get it started. I don't have any animals on hand to merge you with, because once a Chimera is made, it can't be made into something else. At least, not with this version of the jutsu, but I'll change that in time."

"I don't need to _move_ , to kill you."

Satomi looked smug, but her expression became one of horror when suddenly, her belly was split open. It was quick and instant, she hardly felt it happen, but she felt the blood spill, and she felt the cold. She tried to scream, but the most terrible thing happened.

With her belly split open, her intestines were exposed, and that was all Shin'en needed.

Satomi's scream was murdered in her throat when a length of her own small intestine made a loop and became tight around her neck. She acked and gurgled, eyes wide and panicked as she suffocated. The makeshift noose continued to tighten as Shin'en's fury grew at the betrayal of his emotions and feelings by this little monster.

It got tighter…and tighter…and tighter…and then…

 _KRUK_

The vertebrae were crushed.

It was not an instant death, but the last few moments were of agony as the blood pooled inside her, as her lungs burned from asphyxiation, and her nerves screamed at the sudden loss of connection. After moments of slow pain, Satomi Nagai died, a monster at the age of four that had orchestrated her mother's death, manipulated her father, and sacrificed both him and her loyal dog to a jutsu and delusions of grandeur.

Shin'en stared at the corpse for a bit, reflecting on the event and stewing in his emotions. The Chimera padded over and prodded Satomi with its nose.

"Daugh…ter…wake…up…Daddy…needs…help…"

Shin'en grabbed the water inside the mutilated bodies of Shou Nagai and Sumire, and ripped the poor beast apart. It was messy, but it was instant. He didn't dwell on that action, and he flared his chakra in such a monumental blast that he shattered the Paralysis Seal and blew up the house, toppling every tree within a twenty-meter radius.

He met up with Yūrei later, but he was too…he just wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone right then, and so he set off by himself through the marshlands and back to the hideout. By the time he got back, the sun had risen to be hidden behind a thick blanket of gray clouds.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I told you there was going to be a twist, as in, the intestines being twisted to form a noose? Ha, get it? A 'twist?'**_

 _ **But seriously. You all thought Shou Nagai was going to turn his daughter Satomi into a Chimera with her dog, Sumire, and Shin'en was going to paint the walls with his blood because of his emotional attachment to the little girl because she reminded him of his sisters.**_

 _ **But no, Satomi was the villain all along, stealing the jutsu notes from pirates, intentionally getting her mother killed, playing on her father's grief, and then using him to better the jutsu she stole until a successful way to use it was found.**_

 _ **All at the age of four, almost five.**_

 _ **What a monster.**_

 _ **Also, I got an evening job with UPS, working 5-10, and I start college on August 27, 2018, for those reading in the future. Updates will get a little weirder come the end of the summer, but my schedule works to where I have plenty of free time. I think.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	15. Twins

_Twins_

 _ **Lots of appreciation for last chapter's twist, although one person called it predictable. Like, how though? I said there's a twist, not a complete role-reversal.**_

 _ **Anyway, this will be the last chapter of what can be more or less called the 'Introduction Arc,' as next the next few chapters will be the creation and birth of Shin'en's first true alternate personality, Kimiko.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After what had just happened, Shin'en went straight for his room. He was hungry, and he was tired, and he was emotionally shaken. It wasn't necessarily because of the concept of an evil four-year-old girl, but the concept that that girl had acted like someone that had been very close to him, and looked like someone that he kept telling himself he hated.

Still though, an evil child like that was rattling.

If such malice could exist in a little girl, just what were the adults in this twisted land like?

Shin'en put such thoughts to rest, and tried to move on from what happened. It was just another case of crazy dead person; Susano'o had warned him a few days ago, after his stint in the _Sword Art Online_ dimension where he had slaughtered dozens of Laughing Coffin members, all of them insane and broken, that he would find such things in the Land of Water.

It wasn't that Shin'en had doubted his patron god, but to truly see it, experience it…it was something else.

The demigod's eyes drooped, and so he let his body fall to its side, his head hitting his pillow. He just needed a quick power nap, that's all. His eyes barely closed all the way before Sukina was at his door.

"Come on, get up. We have a mission."

Shin'en's eyes popped open, and his death stare was punctuated by the bags under his eyes. If the masked young woman was bothered by the cold emerald eyes, she gave no outward signs of discomfort.

"No," Shin'en growled.

Sukina tilted her head. "Why not?"

"Because I'm tired and hungry. I haven't slept or eaten in literal days."

"You're hungry then? Okay. Follow me."

"Why?"

"Do you want food or not?"

Scowling, yet tempted by the promise of sustenance, Shin'en rose and followed Sukina to the front, where the rest of the Ghosts were gearing up. They looked at her questioningly.

"Shin'en's hungry," Sukina informed. "I'm going to find him some food."

The way she said it, and the words she used, made the demigod out as a whiny, pouty, petulant child, a spoiled brat that wasn't getting his way and was loudly complaining about it. Shin'en burned on the inside, glaring at Sukina from behind his mask at the insult to his person. None of the Ghosts questioned this, and simply let it happen, something that burned Shin'en even more as they simply accepted Sukina's description of the situation.

She exited the Daimyo's old summer home, and took off into the trees, Shin'en following. He silently stewed in his emotions, his irritation, anger, frustration, fatigue, loathing, and more. Sukina soared hundreds of feet in a single tap of her foot, sailing for an hour before she came to a stop on a branch. Shin'en stopped next to her.

It was a dark part of the forest, the canopy so thick the morning sunlight couldn't penetrate the gloom. The ground below was moist and soft, more like mud than anything. Shin'en could feel water all around him, in the trees, in the air, in the ground, and in the creatures.

"This looks good," Sukina said. She hopped down, dropping a hundred feet without a hint of pain or injury. At the soft base of the tree, she raised a hand and stabbed down with great force, blasting a hole into the dirt. Immediately, a host of large, white, grubs came squiggling out.

Shin'en hopped down next to her. "What are they?"

"Tree grubs. Rich in protein and they taste like ass—trust me, I know—but more importantly, they are a quick and easy meal for you. Eat up."

Shin'en hesitated.

"What's the matter?" Sukina reached down and grabbed a grub. She lifted her mask and popped the thick thing inside her mouth. The chewing sounds were squishy, and a bit of juice squirted between her lips. "Lost your appetite?"

Shin'en stared at her from behind his mask, his eyes hidden as they slid from Sukina to the tree grubs. Suddenly, he wasn't that hungry. Sukina came to stand next to him, her mask back on. She kept her head straight, not looking at him.

"Until you're so starved that you ravage the crawling things of the ground, do not complain of hunger to us, boy."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What's the mission?" Shin'en asked, back at the hideout.

"We're going to the city of Okita. Our employer has paid us half now, and will pay us half upon the completion of the mission. The mission calls for the heads of twin children, Yuki and Ame, seven years. Yuki is the elder, Ame the younger. The employer had his advances refused by the twins' mother, Hana, and now seeks recompense," Arashi said.

Shin'en stared at him. "You're joking." Silence reigned. "You're not joking. Someone seriously paid us to kill a woman's kids because she didn't open her legs for him?"

"Yes."

"Where's the father?"

"Dead."

"Ah. Okita is not close to here."

"If we leave now, we can make it by nightfall."

Considering it wasn't much past the mid hours of the morning, that mean that Okita was truly quite the journey away.

"Well then," Shin'en said. "I guess we better get started—and _no_ ," he looked at Yūwaku, "I do not have to go potty."

She gave him a thumbs-up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

True to Arashi's prediction, the sun was laying on the horizon by the time Yūrei reached the city of Okita. It was surrounded by some big walls, a big building in the middle of the city, clearly the residence of the government and other important figures. The other structures included houses, restaurants, schools, factories, and everything else a stable city would need to remain economically sound.

Yūrei was positioned outside the walls, calmly informing Shin'en of all they knew of the city.

"Compared to a lot of places, Okita is relatively stable," Arashi lectured. "Yes, there is crime and corruption and a tragic story almost at every corner, but it's manageable. The police force is of good repute, and they do their jobs, mostly because the chief is a good woman with morals. The governor of the city is the chief's cousin, and he's done what he can to keep the peace in these troubled times. Of course, keeping the peace involves doing some things considered unsavory by most, and so we have blackmail to use against him should the need arise, however, the governor is on the up and up, and it shouldn't be a problem.

"Okita's chief claim to fame is its fertile farming grounds west of the city, close to the river, where they grow rice. The rice grown here makes up for almost twenty percent of all the known world's rice stores, and the sake they make is considered high-ryō, often used in ritual ceremonies and at lavish parties. The bottle we use to toast is actually bought from here."

"Fascinating," Shin'en said, and he actually meant it, "but we're here on business, aren't we? And our business is to kill the twins Yuki and Ame, and deliver their heads to our employer for payment. Where do they live?"

"Not a clue."

The demigod stared at the leader. "Seriously? We know that the targets are seven-year-old twins named Yuki and Ame, Yuki being the elder, and their mother is Hana and their father is dead, but that's all? Nothing on their social status, wealth, residence, job, or surname?"

"That's what you're going to find out," Bullock said. "This mission is all on you, kid. Information gathering, plan-making, strategizing. We've seen you fight, kill, and torture, now we're going to see you think. You have until daybreak to get back to us with meaningful information."

"Or what?"

"Nothing," Bullock shrugged. "We'll all go in and do it together."

"That doesn't sound like much of a negativity."

"Nope, but our collective opinion of you will be drastically lowered, and we won't trust you to function on your own in this kind of theater anymore."

"What makes you think I care about your opinions or your trust?"

Arashi nodded. "Yūrei, move out. Shin'en had declared himself unfit for this kind of solo assignment."

"Hold up!" The Ghosts stopped in place, directing their grinning masks at him. "I'll be back before midnight."

Before anything else could be said or done, Shin'en dissipated in a swirl of water.

…

"Huh," Bullock said. "So, that's a thing."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Right then.

He knew next to nothing about the targets, where they lived, who they were, what kind of money they made, what school they attended, if any, what job their mother had, if any. He didn't know if they were bums on the street or among the richest in the city.

Still, he wasn't completely lost, at least, in an information gathering sense, as he had no idea where in the city he was besides on top of a ramen shop that had residences on top of it. That big building there in the middle was undoubtedly the government's central hub, and the government was bound to have storage rooms laden with information regarding its citizens.

However, while that took care of where to start looking, there was another problem yet present: the family he was here to destroy, he didn't know their surname, so if the citizen records were alphabetized by surname, he was in for a long night…but he also had Shadow Clones.

Now then, since he had a plan in place, all he needed to do was infiltrate the building, pray that it was the government building, and then find the records room…preferably without getting caught.

Though if he was compromised, his backup plan was to simply fight his way out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The big building was indeed host to the government offices, as Shin'en's hydro-sense could feel the guards patrolling, feel the late workers inside doing their thing, and he could feel the air moving through the bowels of the facility, the bodies of those in chains.

A torture chamber, clearly, but it wasn't his problem. That wasn't why he was here.

Through the water alone, Shin'en couldn't accurately pinpoint which room was the records room. Nor did he know if everything was stored on a computer somewhere that needed official access.

Oh well. Grabbing a grunt didn't seem like a good idea, and so that left getting inside and grabbing one of the workers the more viable option. Now, how to get inside. The front door was an option, there was probably a maintenance entrance somewhere, there were plenty of windows, and Shin'en could feel on top of the building rooftop access portals, and air-conditioning units.

However, he could also see and feel pylons set up around the building, attached to the walls. He could hear a faint humming coming from them, which was probably much louder since the distance between him and them was large. Shin'en didn't know what those things did, but he recalled what he had been told by Sukina, that there were things like anti-shinobi technology, such as chakra detectors and chakra-dampening fields.

But, she had also said that his Yūrei clothes were imbued with Sealing Jutsu that protected from such technologies.

He wasn't going to risk it, though.

Turning his body into mist yet again, Shin'en's essence traveled through the vapor, into an AC unit, through the ducts, and out a vent where one lone woman sat typing away with a lamp illuminating her keyboard. Shin'en wasn't sure just _how_ his mist-travel worked, with him dematerializing his body, yet he was still able to move and see and hear and feel and taste and smell, and then bring his body back together all in one piece without fear of something going wrong.

Eh, it was a divine ability, so for all intents and purposes, it was beyond explanation, convention, and understanding.

Anyway, Shin'en brought himself together, and put the point of a kunai to the back of the woman's neck. She froze.

"Do anything I don't want you to do, and you'll never leave here alive. Raise your left shoulder if you understand."

The woman raised her left shoulder.

"Good. I'm looking for information on some people that live in Okita. Could you be so kind as to pull up residence information on your computer for me?"

The woman slowly brought her fingers back to the keyboard, clicked through some windows, and brought up a search engine page after inputting her authorization codes when prompted, something Shin'en saw and memorized if needed in the future.

"Who are you looking for?" she asked in a surprisingly calm tone.

"The family consisting of Hana, and her twin children, Yuki and Ame."

Shin'en heard a slight, sharp, and very quiet gasp come from the woman, and he had to wonder if it wasn't Hana herself that he was holding at knifepoint. The woman input the names, and a series of pictures were brought up.

Hana's, Yuki's, and Ame's profiles, complete with rudimentary information, like where they lived, where Hana worked, and where the twins went to school. Before Shin'en was everything he needed, and so he pressed the kunai through the woman's throat.

She gurgled, but with her vocal chords and larynx destroyed, she couldn't make much of a sound. She died quickly, and Shin'en set her down to the side. He placed an immolation tag on her, and burned her away. He turned his attention to the computer, scanning through the information provided.

Hana was a simple woman of middle-class status, her children attending a civilian school as they had shown no interest in being ninja, and they lived on this street. Shin'en had no idea where that was in this city, so he poked around and eventually found a map that he typed the location into. When he knew how to get there from the government building and from where Yūrei was currently camped, and the landmarks around the residence, Shin'en made his exfil, shutting the computer down and turning off the lamp.

He turned to mist and soared out the way he came, only he went further, all the way back out to where Yūrei was. His arrival had them drawing weapons, but once they saw it was him, they relaxed, but in such a way that they could yet attack.

"It's not even eleven yet," Arashi noted. "What were you able to find?"

Shin'en relayed his discoveries.

"Hm, good," the leader nodded. "I take it you fact-checked this information, going to school to check their records, and to where Hana worked to check their records, to make sure that the twins actually went to school there and that their mother actually worked where she worked, and that they actually lived where the system said they lived."

Shin'en stared at Arashi.

"I'll take that as a no. Let this be a learning opportunity, then. Check the information you find to make sure it is accurate. Also, preliminarily scope out the location where the targets are, so that a plan can be made. Since this was the first time you've done this, I'll let it slide, but do not make these mistakes again. Am I clear?"

Shin'en nodded.

"Good. Yūrei, let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Shin'en, we'll wait out here. You get in, you gather more information if this attempt is botched, and then get in position. You do not act until I give the green light, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

The demigod got in easily enough, using the same tactic as he used to infiltrate the government building. He materialized inside the twins' room. It was dark and unoccupied, as the family of three was currently in the living room watching a late-night movie. As he did with the others of Yūrei, he looked through everything.

He looked under their bed, finding some boxes. A quick look inside the boxes revealed old clothes and old toys. He put the boxes back as he found them. He rifled through the closet quietly and quickly, looking through their clothes, examining them like he had done in the past. The girl clothes were loud and exciting, and the boy clothes were quiet and simple.

An extrovert big sister and an introvert little brother.

Sounded familiar.

Other than clothes, the only other thing in the closet were dead bugs, dust, lint, and toy bins. Shin'en went for the dresser. It was big one, and true to his hypothesis, it accommodated both children's wardrobes beyond what was in the closet. Pajamas, play clothes, various swimsuits, neatly folded school uniforms, and of course, underwear.

The underwear drawer contained a peculiarity, however, in the form of girl's night pants.

"Yuki wets her bed, still," Shin'en spoke into the mask's comm unit.

"Or her brother does and likes the girl ones," Yūwaku said.

"Or they're for day wetting," Sukina pitched in.

"Or maybe one of them like to play around in them," Bullock added.

"Or maybe both of them like playing," Arashi said, though his tone was final. "Shin'en, get into position. They're coming."

Of course, he knew they were coming, he could feel it in the air as they moved through the water vapor. Shin'en shut the drawer and became a puddle of water that slithered into the closet. He reformed and watched from the tiny crack in the doors.

The door opened and light from the hall flooded in.

"Do you have on your special undies, sweetie?" Shin'en heard a woman ask, Hana.

"Yes, Momma," a girl answered, Yuki. She sounded exasperated, like she was asked this on a daily basis and was also humiliated by the question.

Shin'en heard and felt Hana pull back the covers on the bed, and the children get in.

"Momma, why am I the only girl in the world that wets her bed?"

"You're not, sweetie," Hana answered with a small laugh. "Thousands of girls still need a little more help during the night, and a lot of them are older than you are."

"Then how come I haven't met any?" Yuki asked with a whine.

"Because, sweetie, they're just as embarrassed about it as you are. Would you want everyone knowing you wet the bed?"

"No…but do I have to wear diapers, too? I'm not a _baby_."

Shin'en felt Hana place her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "Yuki, they are not diapers. Diapers have tapes on them, and babies wear diapers. You are not a baby, and your special undies don't have tapes."

Yuki was silent for a little bit, and then she asked, "When am I going to stop?"

And that was a question that no one could answer, and Hana didn't try. "I don't know, sweetheart, but I do know that Ame has something he wanted to show you. Ame," the mother nodded.

From his angle in the closet, Shin'en could see what Ame was doing. The younger twin lifted his pajama shirt and lowered his pants, revealing that he was wearing one of his sister's "special undies." The demigod heard Yuki gasp, and then giggle.

"You're _silly_ , little brother, and you're a dork."

"Love you," Ame chirped.

Hana said proudly to Yuki, "Ame decided to help you out and put on one of your undies because he didn't want you to feel alone."

Yuki twisted around and squeezed her brother as hard as she could. "I love you, little brother."

"I love you too, big sister."

Shin'en's heart constricted.

"Alright, you two. Time to go to sleep." Hana kissed both of them on the head, having to go around to get to Ame. On her way out the door, she flicked on a nightlight. "I love the both of you so very much. Sleep tight, and I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight, Momma!"

Hana shut the door, and the twins grinned at each other, rubbing their noses together with a giggle. Then they flopped over, and snuggled up until their backs were together. The hooked their ceiling-facing arms at the elbow, and they reach above them with their bed-facing arms and gripped fingers. Under the covers, their legs tangled.

"Love you, brother," Yuki said one more time.

"Love you, sister," Ame responded.

Not even a full minute passed before their heartbeats and breathing evened out and became steady.

"Shin'en," Arashi's voice buzzed in his ear, "You have the green light. Take them."

And he didn't move. He stood there in the shadows of the closet.

"You have the green light. Complete the mission."

The demigod remained immobile, his blood pumping in his ears.

"Shin'en Yūrei…I hold you to your oath."

The oath to do horrible things in the name of his goals and ambitions, those being the deaths of Yagura, the Seven Swordsmen, and all shinobi in the world. He had already killed a baby, he had slaughtered both sides of an army, he had tortured a man and a woman, and he had killed a four-year-old girl. Nevermind the people he had tortured and killed back during his training in the Cloud.

What was a pair of twins three years his junior?

Shin'en crept from the closet, a Thunder Sword poofing in his hand. The sound was enough to stir the twins, and Yuki looked up, gasped, drawing Ame's attention. The last thing the twins would see in this life would be a wraith in black, a smiling white mask against the darkness, and a raised sword.

 _SCHING_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Arashi handed the water-tight bag to the employer, who opened it.

"Whew! That stinks!" He tumped the bag over, making the severed heads of Ame Yuki come tumbling out along with a waterfall of their blood. "You know, I'd heard good things about you freaks, but I honestly didn't believe them…now I do. Here's the rest of the money, as promised."

The employer picked up and handed a briefcase over to Arashi, who took it, popped it open, and quickly inspected the stacks of cash. Deeming it good, Arashi closed the briefcase and nodded once. He turned and walked away, the employer doing the same.

However, Shin'en heard the man's parting words. "This'll teach that bitch to say no me. When I see her next, I'll _make_ a couple more kids."

And the demigod snapped. In twin puffs of smoke, his swords were out, and before any of Yūrei could think to blink, he was there, in front of the employer. The world was struck black, with dozens of brilliant white lines crisscrossing. Normal color returned, and each of those white lines was revealed to have crossed the employer.

Those lines turned red, and the employer fell apart in pieces.

"Shin'en!" Arashi roared. "Stand-!"

The demigod whipped around to face the leader, and all of Yūrei was struck rigid with primal terror as the Abyss unleashed his malice, his hatred, his loathing, and his anger. Four years of pent up negativity all coming out in a single dose of Killing Intent.

Thousands of sleeping birds awoke and shot to the skies, thousands of animals went running in all directions. In the nearby Okita, the entire city stopped and trembled. Babies were killed by shock, children were rendered comatose, adolescents soiled themselves, teens paled and sweated, and adults became quiet, their eyes wide and bodies tense.

Yūrei took the brunt of Shin'en's Killer Intent, and all of them were shocked and almost terrified at how much… _everything_ this child before them could produce.

Never in any of their lives had they experienced such raw desire to slaughter and destroy.

And then…it ended.

Shin'en fell to his knees, the Kiba poofing away. Before him, lying in the red grass, the heads of the twins stared at him with faces forever frozen as ones of fear and terror. The image burned itself not just unto his memory, but his very soul.

Sukina came over to him, and without a word, put her arms under his and lifted him up, settling him on her hip before repositioning her arms and him to where he was on her front, supporting him with both her arms under him.

"Come on, little one. We're going home now."

Shin'en didn't know if he fell asleep or not, as everything became like a daze. The next thing he was fully aware of, he was back at the hideout, in his bed, and his sister was standing over him, gently stroking his hair.

"Sephy…" he muttered weakly.

Sukina smiled thinly. "I'm here, little brother."

' _He's begun hallucinating,'_ she thought. _'Next comes the phantasms, and then we can begin. It's almost time.'_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Only the smartest of psychologists could possibly come close to figuring out why Shin'en hesitated to kill the twins Ame and Yuki.**_

 _ **Fun fact: Percy's original name for the**_ **Naruto** _ **world was going to be "Kuroumi," (Koo-roh-oo-mi) meaning "black ocean," but it sounded too feminine, so I tried "Umikuro" (Oo-meek-oo-roh) but I thought that sounded stupid. Then I thought of the Japanese word for 'abyss' and looked it up. I though it sounded good, and it stuck.**_

 _ **Also, what voice do you hear when you read Shin'en? I've been meaning to ask that for a long time, but I keep forgetting. I certainly don't hear Logan Lerman, but I can't place anyone's voice to Shin'en. Can any of you?**_

 _ **Next chapter will be a bunch of psychology and nightmare stuff. I can't say it'll scare any of you, but I like to think that what I have in mind will be pretty creepy. I don't know, though time will tell.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	16. Delirium

_Delirium_

 _ **So, we hit well over 300 Reviews last chapter, in just fifteen chapters, which is awesome~! But strangely enough, it looks like we're going to cap the Follows and the Favs at 156 and 155 respectively. Which I find endlessly amusing considering**_ **Ghoul** _ **has over 800 in those categories, and it's currently my worst story.**_

 _ **You guys are weird.**_

 _ **Anyway, some psychological trippiness in this chapter, along with the beginnings of Yūrei's best work: breaking someone down and rebuilding them into someone new.**_

 _ **Also, I found a profile picture for myself. Does it fit, or is it a little too dramatic?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en was sick, that much was clear. It wasn't a physical illness, but an emotional one, one that affected him physically. He was sweating, almost profusely. He gasped and hyperventilated, choked and wheezed. He tossed and writhed, his skin like constriction paper. He felt so hot, but he shivered as if freezing. He was wrapped in blankets, thick ones, and he was sweating them out. On top of all that, he was dehydrated.

His sweating was draining him dry.

Of course, over the passing of four days, Yūrei was taking care of him, basically babying him. They had to change his blankets and sheets and clothes when he soaked through them. It was a pain to get him to drink anything and keep up what little fluids he had in him, because he was effectively choking.

However, that more by design by anything. While Yūrei had done very disgusting things, it was a preference of theirs not to clean up a little boy's accidents. Hence, little food, and little liquid. You can't make a mess of yourself if you don't have anything inside that can be put to waste.

Anyway, in those four days, while every Ghost had a turn in caring for him, it was, predictably, Sukina and Yūwaku that put more emotion into their duties. Whenever they were there, Shin'en would crack his eyes open, delirious, calling them both 'Sephy.' A clear derivative of his sister's, Persephone's, name.

It was both cute and concerning.

It was a fairly routine fur days. Change his blankets, change his clothes, change his sheets, wash said objects after redressing him and redoing his bedding. Stay with him. Hold him from time to time, providing physical comfort during his delirium, grounding him. Get him to drink a little, his drink being what basically amounted to baby food—a puree of some things mixed with water.

There was one time when Yūwaku had been cradling him that she had tried breastfeeding the child, both because his old feeding instinct was resurfacing, his cheek rubbing against her chest causing him to turn in that direction with a gasping mouth, his lips cracked and chapped, and because of her psychosis. Yūwaku was being selfish, yes, in that she was taking advantage of Shin'en's ill state to baby him, substituting him for her own son.

So many times, the only food she could provide for her son had been her milk, and it had become a comfort for her son to drink from her, and it had become a comfort to her to feed him. Just a few minutes out of the day to just be there with her baby, providing for him and caring for him. With Sukoshi's brutal death, that comfort disappeared.

Now Yūwaku had the opportunity to rekindle it, if only by proxy, and she took it.

Not that Shin'en would ever know that he was breastfed by her.

He was but semi-lucid, the emotional toll of killing Ame and Yuki, seeing himself and his sister, and the physical toll of fatigue and hunger, completely destroying internal homeostasis and his equilibrium. He wouldn't remember anything of what happened when he was conscious, but he was hardly ever conscious.

His eyes might have been open, but he wasn't seeing.

At least, he wasn't seeing what was in front of him.

While his body swam in sickness, his mind…his mind was tortured by itself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was dark, and Shin'en heard sobbing. He could see but there was nothing to see, and he couldn't sense any water anywhere. It should have made him wary, edgy, on guard, but the only thing he could feel was calm.

Shin'en followed the sound of the sobbing, and he found a woman with his back turned to him, on her knees, shoulders shaking. There was blood on the ground around her. Suddenly, with a feeling of being squeezed, the demigod found himself in front of the woman. It was Hana, the mother of Ame and Yuki.

She was holding their little corpses to her, their _headless_ corpses. The blood of the twins had soaked and bathed Hana's front, coating her in red. She looked up at him, face tear-stained.

"Why?" she sobbed. "They were just babies—my babies! What did they do to deserve this? What did _I_ do to deserve this? You took their heads—I'll never see their faces again! Just… _why_?"

Hana dipped her head back down, mumbling about her poor children.

Shin'en heard the crying of a baby, and he turned around to see a cradle, a familiar one. He walked to the railing, the baby he had killed wailing by her lonesome. As he peered at her, her crying suddenly ceased, and she spoke, coherently.

"You killed me!"

Shin'en recoiled. A baby talking in full sentences with its newborn baby voice was disconcerting even to the coldest of people.

"You killed my mommy and daddy, and my big brother and sisters! I could've been a great person! I could've brought peace to the world that would last for centuries to come, or I could've been the doctor to find the cure for cancer! But I'm dead! I didn't get to eat solid foods, you bastard!"

The baby began screaming obscenities. "You cow-fucking, goat-dick-sucking baby killer! I'm going to find your mother's cunt and crawl inside of it and eat my out of her pussy! I'm going to find your sister and rape her asshole with my bottle! Then I'm going to stab a hole through her taint, and shove my shitty diapers inside until she looks like an overstuffed diaper pail! And for you, I'm going put all my spit-up in bottles and make you drink them until its pouring out of your every filthy, fucking orifice! Your eyes are going to crying my vomit before I'm done with you, baby killer!"

Shin'en put a hand on the bottom of the crib, and launched it into the void above. It came down with a crash, and the baby survived, still howling vulgarities until the demigod calmly put his foot on her head, and pressed down with a steady amount of pressure until the skull crumbled, making the brain and the eyes go _squish_.

Out of the wreckage of the cradle, thousands of hand-sized cockroaches came crawling out, fast as flies in the air. They scurried to Shin'en and up his body. Scowling, he batted them off and away with speed and precision, but they just kept coming, multiplying as he killed them. He was overwhelmed, thousands of roaches crawling across him, their legs digging about for purchase on his person, their mouths biting at him.

With a roar (roaches got into his mouth but were blasted out and away), Shin'en flared his chakra. The emerald, fire-like energy exploded around him, blowing away the pests, incinerating them. Shin'en was panting when he reigned his chakra back in, panic having increased his rate of breathing.

Then he heard a screech, and he turned and saw the Mama Cockroach, bigger than when he had killed it first. He mandibles were dripping with goo, and her big black eyes glistened. Her brown shell gleamed, and the hairs on her legs twitched. Her antennae were long and slowly waved around.

For a reason he couldn't explain, Shin'en swallowed hard.

Then he heard more screeches, and he felt the rumbling of the ground, and he looked to see a tidal wave of Mama Roaches scurrying in from the distance.

"…nope."

Shin'en spun on his heel to retreat to safer ground, but he ran smackdab into something large, white, and squishy. The truck-sized tree grub hopped in place as it turned to examine what had hit it, and Shin'en became deeply concerned when he saw the grub's face. It was round and smooth, like a worm's, but it parted and allowed the mouth to…exit.

Four big tusks closed around an opening large enough to swallow a grown man. The tusks parted to reveal the massive tube, and a long, whip-like tongue shot out, and wrapped around Shin'en's leg. He reacted instantly, black lightning expelling from his body to shock the tree grub until it was nothing but a blackened, smoking, smelling crunchy pile of a carcass.

Shin'en wrested his leg free, and dodged in time to avoid the first Mama Roach's pincers as she stabbed where had been on the ground. Shin'en's hand sparked with lightning chakra, and he sped forward, severing the head from the body. There was no time to rest or savor the victory, for the army from earlier was here. All of them were taller than Shin'en, and he was not about to fight hand-to-hand.

He leapt back, running through Hand Seals. He landed, hands clasped in front of him. "Gale Style: Scattershot!"

His hands glowed brightly with gathered chakra, before that chakra was released in a blanket of laser balls. Dozens fired in all forward directions, exploding and taking out swaths of the giant bugs. Shin'en fired multiple volleys, even switching the jutsu to Laser Circus a few times, and then to Focus Laser to erase the few stragglers that survived.

There was a strange, insectoid roar from behind, and he dove forward, summersaulting. Mid-spin, his fast-moving mind saw that it was another tree grub, with dozens more behind. There was a limit to their tongue it seemed, because Shin'en stood probably fifty feet away, and the grub was hobbling at him, its tongue seemingly outstretched to its maximum of thirty feet.

Shin'en felt the ground tremble again, and he looked left, looked right, and looked behind to see that in all directions, thousands of the crawling creatures of the earth were coming for him. More cockroaches, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, beetles, water bugs, ants, ticks, flees, and caterpillars, all of them as big as cars, and bigger.

Shin'en didn't know what was going on, but he was mad. "You want some!? COME AND GET IT!" He went through more Hand Seals, his chakra molding, and he spread his arms. Tendrils of chakra ran the length of his outstretched limbs, before a few branches peeled off beyond his open palms. "Gale Style: Reflex Cannon!"

The chakra beam erupted like oil released from the depths of the earth. Shin'en directed it first at the tree grubs, erasing them, and then he yanked himself in a circle, the beam wiping out everything for dozens of miles in front of it. All the crawling things were obliterated as Shin'en moved his Reflex Cannon over them. He came full circle, and the chakra laser pittered out.

Shin'en fell to his knees, having expelled more chakra in those few minutes than he had…he couldn't recall the last time he had spent so much chakra. Shin'en was taking hard, deep breaths as he tried to calm down and get his racing heart back under control. He failed, and when the black spots danced at his vision, he let himself be overcome….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

His eyes snapped open, but despite the intensity of his fluttering eyelids, his body ached and groaned at any movement. But he had to move. He slid out of his bed, his bed that was soaked in his sweat (he hoped that it was only his sweat), and he moaned as he untangled himself from his blankets, each movement making his skin scream and feel like it was going to rip.

Dazed and in pain, he succeeded, and went for his door. He opened it, and there was a mirror. In the mirror was himself, dressed in Yuki's pajamas. Shin'en was so dazed that instead of freaking out or even questioning what he was seeing, he just shut the door, and opened it again. This time, the mirror's reflection was of him wearing a school girl's uniform, his hair longer and neater, pushed out his face with a hairclip adorned with a dolphin.

No, that wasn't him. It was his sister, Persephone. Just then, the reflection beamed at him. "Baby brother, would you kill people for me?"

Shin'en shut the door a third time, and opened it a third time. This time, there was no mirror, only the gloom of the hallway. Shin'en walked out, shutting his door behind him. He wasn't sure what he was doing, his head was too fuzzy and his skin too constricting for coherent thought, but he noticed how the hallway stretched forever in both directions, or it looked like it did, and evenly spaced through the hall were windows that allowed the full moon's light to shine through.

Shin'en set off down the hallway to his right, hand on the wall to steady himself. As he stumbled forward, his hand left a streak of blood. For what seemed like hours, he kept walking and stumbling, panting, sweat dripping from him, soaking his underwear, the only clothes he had on him. The material had already become so saturated that it was leaking and dripping.

There was no sound besides his steps and his breaths, and every time he looked out the window, he only saw the illuminated tops of the trees, and the full moon hanging high in the sky.

Step by step, window by window, year after agonizing year…or at least, that's what it seemed like.

Shin'en didn't have a clue as to what time it was or how much time was passing; the moon never moved, the shadows never slid, and the trees never twitched.

And then there was a growling from somewhere far behind, so faint and distant Shin'en barely heard it, but he did hear it. The moon's light turned red, and he looked out the window and saw that there was a pattern across the moon: a pupil surrounded by three rings, and on each ring were three tomoe.

The pattern meant nothing to him, but in the crimson gloom, that growl was far too close. Shin'en turned and he saw a shape, a human shape with beady little red dots where its eyes might have been, and a circle lined with several shiny points, like teeth. Shin'en didn't stay to see the monster enter the light, as it stood just beyond the moon's red rays.

He gathered as much of himself as he could, and he ran. He got three steps before the floor gave way under him, and he tumbled into darkness. Tumbling, tumbling, tumbling, before he landed with a smack and a splash in a world of red mist and red water. In the water were several shapes, all of them facing away from him.

There was another splash, heavier than his. The monster had followed him down. It rose from the red water, its shape no more clear here than up there, and Shin'en dove down. The water was not deep by any means, but it was deep enough, and he was small enough, that he became under the surface.

He paddled away, sliding under the shapes, paying them no heed as he swam from the monster. He did not fear it, but he recognized that he was in no shape to do combat, especially when he didn't know what he was fighting. The delirium in his mind was clearing.

After swimming what he thought was safe enough distance, he gently broke the surface, hiding behind one of the things in the water. He scanned around, looking for the monster, but he did not see it. Unaware he was, of the standing thing behind him, until he was grabbed and pulled from the water with tremendous force.

The monster was like the common bestial vampire, with a hulking body, hairy, quadruped legs, hunched back, wings on its arms, and a hideous head with massive ears, an enlarged mouth filled with sharp teeth and a forked tongue, bulbous eyes that shined with hateful red light.

The monster screeched, maw opened wide to swallow the whole of Shin'en's body. With a shout and a feeling like his gut was being ripped open and filled with ice, the demigod called the red water, and he split the monster down the middle. It fell apart, and Shin'en wrested himself free of its dead grip.

All the shapes all over the red water stirred, and they became sentient. Shin'en watched them all rise, and even in his dazed mind, he could recognize them, faces from battles past. Tortured souls of Orochimaru's hand that he had slaughtered while training in the Cloud, faces of those he had tortured, innocents and guilty alike.

What the Raikage had done was pull the poor people off the streets, or grab those who had sick family, and he gave them promises of wealth and healing if they kept the answer to the question given to them, a question that Shin'en sought the answer to. As but a child, he shattered the minds, bodies, and dreams of dozens.

And now here they were, here they all were, those killed, and those wronged. All here for their vengeance.

Shin'en tried to move, but the red water held him still. The wraiths advanced on him, drowning him. He fought how he could with what he could, but there was little he could do. For hours, he struggled, and where what strength he had did not wane, he did not gain any upper hand.

And then a light pierced the red smog above.

Shin'en looked up, the wraiths looked up, and all became quiet. The light made a hole through the haze, and an image showed. It was Persephone, laughing and playing with her mother, Sally. Shin'en's mother. It was their birthday, as in, he was there too. Happy, smiling, sharing a blue cake of all things with his big sister. Yūrei was there, and so were all the orphans. Everyone was having a good time, innocent, heedless of all the woes of the world.

And then he faded from the image, but there was no loss of happiness. Instead, they all looked down, serene and kind, all of their eyes sparkling with joy.

"Come on, Percy!" Persephone called. "We're going to open presents soon! Hurry and get your butt up here!"

A few tears fell down Shin'en's face, he jumped for it. The wraiths became like ghouls, though, thin, spindly, their bones poking from their ribs, their arms and legs like sticks, their fingers like claws, their skulls showing. They gripped and clawed at him, bringing him down. Above, they all continued smiling, offering encouragement.

Boney hands gripped around his head, obscuring all but one desperate eye. Shin'en reached, fingers splayed, arm hurting from how much he was extending. He reached and he reached and he reached further still, the image of his peace and his paradise just a hairsbreadth away…

And this his visible desperate eye hardened, and he tightened his fist. The image became hidden behind his clenched hand, and the red smog closed in, returning to this strange world its red color. Shin'en's fist glowed, and he tore his mouth free from the hand closed around it.

" _NO!"_

The demigod released the pent-up power in a single blast, sending all the ghouls flying away. He landed on the ground, the water having been blown away. His hair stood straight up, his pupils turned into omegas, and so much chakra swirled around him that he turned this red world green.

"I am Shin'en Yūrei! I will not be denied my vengeance! By you! Or by anyone!"

The chakra built around him, swirling tighter and tighter until he couldn't be seen, and then he released it all in a massive explosion that destroyed all around him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sukina was sitting cross-legged in a chair, silently examining the sweating child she was tasked with looking after for the next few hours. There wasn't much running through her mind, other than just watching over him. And then suddenly, he stilled. His breathing became steady. His shivering stopped. His grip on the pillow relaxed.

Sukina would've thought him dead if not for the fact that she could hear his heartbeat.

His eyes popped open, and instead of being tired, or hateful, or dark, or anything really, they were…blank. Empty. Like a canvas ready to be worked upon.

"Welcome back," Sukina greeted. Shin'en looked at her, and he raised an arm and flashed a peace sign. "Yūwaku will be disappointed. She was enjoying having a son to take care of again. You'll also need to thank her, as she's the only one that changed your diapers."

That last one was a probe, a test of his reaction.

He tilted his head, frowning. "I'm not a wearing a diaper though…" he said flatly, not a hint of any kind of emotion in his voice.

Sukina nodded. "Nope. I was lying, seeing how you'd respond."

"And? Did I do good?"

"Yes. Come on. There's a mission we need to prepare you for, and it's going to take everything you've got to pull it off. Are you prepared to handle remaking yourself into an entirely new person, one with their own likes and dislikes, their own quirks and oddities, their own views and opinions? Can you split your mind into a new piece in order to lose yourself to someone else, an infiltrator? Can you become a new person?"

Shin'en…didn't really understand any of that, but he nodded strongly all the same.

Sukina didn't smile or do anything, besides say one cryptic line: "We'll see about that."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Days later_

 _September 1, 1010 After Sage (A.S.)_

 _Bridge leading out of the capital city of the Land of Water, Umi_

 _Hours before nightfall_

A little girl stumbled down the bridge, wearing more of a rag than a dress. She couldn't have been any older than nine, maybe ten. At one point, she might've been a little angel, but now she was only anther urchin. Her hair was dirty and frizzed, streaked with mud, her face and all exposed skin caked in grime, her dress ripped and torn. She walked with a limp, a limp that could've been caused by any number of reasons.

Fatigue, injury, birth defect…something much worse. With how dirty this child was, it was impossible to tell if there was any blood mixed with the dirt.

She was almost to the end of the bridge, almost to the wildlands, when she couldn't walk no more, her tiny body spent of its energy, she collapsed where she stood, and drifted off into her dreams.

Hours later, after dozens of carts had come by and wholly ignored the seemingly dead child on the side of the road, and the sun was almost hidden by the horizon, one lavish carriage came buy, led by a team of beautiful horses and a coachman. The cart passed the girl like all others, but then came to an abrupt stop.

From out of the carriage came a powerful-looking man. Tall, muscled, sharp-jawed, and draped in finery. In strong, measured steps, he was at the almost-dead girl's side, and he put his fingers to her neck. When he found a pulse, the creases on his face eased, and a breath of relief came from him.

He scooped the little girl into his arms, and brought her back to the carriage, wherein his wife, eldest daughter, and twin sons were.

"Father?" the daughter asked.

"We're taking this one home with us," he announced.

"But…why?" the daughter asked.

"Because that is what you do for those in need, Uzu."

"But she's just another urchin! For all we know, she'll slit our throats when we sleep!"

"And if that happens," the father said, voice hard, "then we will be free of our mortal suffering and will spend eternity in the Pure World as a family, and this little one will be doomed to wander the land of the living with the guilt of what she did."

The girl stirred, the sounds of people drawing her mind back to the conscious world. Her eyes barely cracked open, revealing orbs that might have once been a beautiful ocean blue, but were now dull and burdened.

"What is your name, child?" the man asked sternly.

"Kimi…ko…Kimiko…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And so begins the Kimiko Arc. The next chapter will be how she was born, and the chapters after that will be the build up to the climax of her sad story.**_


	17. Making Kimiko

_Making Kimiko_

 _ **Apparently, no one pays attention to details, because too many people are asking about Kimiko and Shin'en being friends…they're the same person, idiots. Kimiko is one of Shin'en's alternate personalities, made through acting, and emotional strife.**_

 _ **This chapter is the process by which Yūrei makes an entirely separate person out of someone.**_

 _ **Basically, it's method acting on an extreme level.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What's the mission?" Shin'en asked, voice blank. Coming out of his delirium had changed him, dulled his emotions…for now.

"Deep cover infiltration," Arashi answered.

Yūrei was gathered in their war room, a simple chamber with a large table covered in papers and maps and pictures of people.

The leader handed a paper to Shin'en, along with some photos. "These are the members of the Yasaka family. The father, Lord Daizo Yasaka, his wife, Lady Aiemi Yasaka, and their three children, Uzu Yasaka the eldest daughter by five years, age 17, the older twin son, Kaneda, and his little brother, Tetsuo.

"They are a noble family, rich off rice, and, as suspected, arms dealing. If our suspicions are true, Lord Daizo is the single biggest trader of weapons in the Land of Water, supplying militia, the Daimyo's samurai, Yagura's forces, and, by way of theft, the Rebellion. And while Lord Daizo is a generous, unwitting provider of quality Rebellion weapons, he supplies too much to the enemy…or so it's suspected.

"Your mission, Shin'en, is to become someone entirely new, someone with no ties to the Rebellion, or Yūrei, or anyone besides those you make for this new person. Your mission is to use this guise to infiltrate the Yasaka estate at the highest level, and investigate the area for any evidence as to our suspicions. After two weeks, at the latest, a decision will be made based on what evidence you've gathered, or lack thereof. Are you prepared?"

Shin'en continued to scan the paper he had been given, reading it through sheer force of will as his dyslexia acted against him. After a moment, he looked up. "Why don't we all just silently storm the place in the night, and turn it upside down?"

Arashi produced another paper from the pile on the table. "Their security is as anti-shinobi as it could possibly be. State of the art chakra detectors, the latest in chakra-dampening field generators, a battalion of highly-trained, highly-skilled samurai, all equipped with the latest swords and armor, all designed to fight shinobi. The estate is lined with heat seekers, motion detectors, sound resonators, and things we don't even know about. It took us three months just to gather that much information. We've been casing this place for a long time."

"Then why haven't you already done the mission?"

"Oh, we were," Bullock answered. "But then we were given orders, and we had to put it off. We're only just now able to pencil it in."

"Oh…then why don't we just kill the whole family?"

"Because," Arashi said, "they're well-respected members of upper-society, loved by the public, known for their charity, good will towards men, and they often host parades, balls, and services in honor of the loyal soldiers of Yagura, their families, and in honor of those that have died. They're the common man's hero that does no wrong."

"So…" Shin'en tilted his head, "…I'm being sent in to look for evidence of their arms dealing, and if I find it…we're going to kill them…and expose them…? Or we're not exposing them? I mean, if they die and their deals are made public, then their image is disgraced and whatever emotional support they provide, and whatever image they have, will be tarnished, and the hopes of good people will evaporate, but if it's kept a secret, then they become martyrs…I'm confused. My head hurts."

Sukina put an arm around him and pulled him into her side, giving him a loving squeeze. "I know it sounds weird, but just roll with it."

"…okay. What do I have to do?"

" _Act_ ," Arashi said heavily. "For you to get inside that estate, you need to be brought in by a member of the Yasaka family, and for you to be brought in, you need to get in their hearts, or one of their hearts, anyway. For that to happen, you can't be Shin'en Yūrei, Ghost of the Bloody Mist, Killer of Ringo, Slaughterer of Shinobi. You need to be someone else, someone different. You need to make yourself into a new person, and then find a way in. Any ideas, off the top of your head?"

Shin'en examined the paper with the background information on it. "I see a way," he said. "They were due for a fourth child, a girl, but there were complications, and the child died in the womb…nine years ago. The girl would about my age, should she have been alive."

"That's cold," Yūwaku said, "playing on a family's emotions by reminding them of their dead daughter, pulling at the heartstrings…I like it. So, kid, as per your strategy, you have to become a girl. Think you can do it?"

Shin'en didn't verbally answer. Instead, his body became like water, making Yūrei cock brows as they were reminded of the Hozuki clan. The water-form changed shape, if only slightly, and the water was pulled back under Shin'en's clothes, revealing a child with a slightly paler skin tone, longer, thinner hair, a softer face, if only barely, and very beautiful ocean-blue eyes.

"So…" Bullock blinked. "What's your name?"

"Hmm," the person that Shin'en had become tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. Then she looked back at the green-haired man. "Kimiko."

"Uh huh."

"Did you… _really_ …just turn into a girl?" Yūwaku asked.

Kimiko dropped her shorts, showing everyone her genitals. "Yes."

"…how…?"

"Demigod stuff."

"Can you get pregnant?"

"Probably. I don't want to find out though."

"What about having a period?"

"Probably. I don't want to find out though."

"Are you going to be able to pee like that, or do you need to turn back into a boy?"

"I can pee like this."

Silence hung in the air for a little bit as everyone adjusted to the fact that Shin'en had just turned into a girl and declared herself 'Kimiko.'

Then Arashi said, "Shin'en."

She looked at the leader…and Sukina struck her across the jaw, sending her to the ground. No one reached out to help Kimiko; they all just stared at her on the floor. Kimiko glowered up at Sukina, "Ouch. Why though?"

"Because you responded to 'Shin'en,'" Sukina answered. "You aren't Shin'en anymore. You are Kimiko. Kimiko responds to Kimiko, not Shin'en. It'll be hard, training yourself to ignore that name for the next several days, but we'll help. Are you still up to this? Are you still willing to go this far and further to kill Yagura?"

Kimiko got to her feet. "I am."

Bullock slapped her to the ground. "That's Shin'en's motivation. Shin'en's vows. You aren't Shin'en, and you have nothing to do with him, nothing at all. You're Kimiko."

Kimiko got back to her feet, dark shadows over her eyes.

"We're going to remake you," Arashi said. "When we're done, _you_ will be Kimiko, and Shin'en will be Shin'en. Let's get started."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sukina pulled Kimiko into her room. "We're going to build your history. Who was your family?"

"I…my mother died giving birth to me, and my father…my father I don't know because he sent me to an orphanage when I was born. I don't have any siblings, or extended family."

"Oh…and how do you know any of that if you were sent to an orphanage at birth?"

"…one of the staff told me."

"Really? What was the staff member's name? What did they look like? How did they come to know this stuff?"

Kimiko glowered.

Sukina smirked. "You're making this too easy for me. Let's try again. Who was your family?"

The two went back and forth for two hours, the orangette blowing holes in every story Kimiko could come up with, but she was also helping the child to make a more solid tale.

After those two hours, this is what Kimiko had:

"My mother's name was Yui, and my father's name was Kazuto. Our family name is Kazuya. My maternal grandparents were Asuna and Kayaba Akiyoko, and my paternal grandparents were Matsua and Aiko Kazuya. I was an only child. I was born on October 24, 1001 A.S. My mother was born on September 23, 980, and my father on May 12, 978. Soldiers of the Rebellion broke into our small home—two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a laundry room, a basement—on August 10, 1010 A.S. and killed my parents. I hid and they left me for dead. I don't know why they did what they did."

Kimiko then proceeded to give descriptions of her parents and what they were like.

"Good," Sukina nodded. "Now, again, and again, and again until you're crying, until you _feel_ your story."

And several more hours passed as Kimiko became her story. At the end, she was crying softly into the crook of Sukina's neck. When her quiet cries became sniffles, the orangette gently pushed her away, dried her eyes with her thumbs, and said, "You poor, poor girl. If I didn't know better, I'd swear this was your truth."

Sukina pulled back, her face hardening. "Now, go to Bullock. With him, you'll create memories and events to recall. Go."

The girl didn't go away. Instead, she tried to press into Sukina, seeking comfort. Sukina's arms locked, keeping the demigoddess literally at arm's length. "Go _now_ , Shin'en."

"Kimiko! My name's _Kimiko_."

"Then _go to Bullock_ , Kimiko," Sukina hissed.

A look of hurt crossed Kimiko's face, before she scowled and left Sukina's room.

The orangette sighed. "I really hate my job."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bullock saw the look on Kimiko's face and didn't bat an eye. Right now, he was conducting business, and when conducting business, there was no room for emotions.

"What is the story you and Sukina made, Shin'en?"

She looked at Bullock, clearly in a sour mood. "My mom was-"

 _SLAP!_

Bullock's palm nailed Kimiko across her cheek, making full contact. She hit the wall, cracking it.

A true testament to the growing difference between Shin'en and Kimiko, is that where Shin'en would've turned Bullock into a stain on the wall for that transgression, Kimiko shed a few tears and looked at Bullock with murder in her eyes…but she didn't do anything.

The greenette didn't blink, his face remaining like rock. "What is the story you and Sukina made, Shin'en?"

"My _name_ is Kimiko."

"My apologies. What is the story you and Sukina made, _Kimiko_?"

She recited the story, and Bullock began to rattle off questions, hammering in everything Kimiko had made up.

"When was your mother born?"

"September 23, 980."

"And you said your father was born on May 2, 978?"

"May 12."

"Ah. Sorry, my mistake."

Back and forth questions like that, testing Kimiko's knowledge of her own lore. After an hour of that, they moved on to memories.

"What was your favorite thing to do with your father, Kayaba?"

"My daddy was _Kazuto_ ," Kimiko hissed. "My favorite thing to do with him was ride on his shoulders and watch the sun go down."

"Hm. And with your mother?"

"Paint our nails."

"Basic, but passable. Your favorite thing with them both?"

"Start a fire in our fire place, curl together under a really big blanket, and watch the flames dance while Mommy read a book."

"Which book?"

"Whatever she grabbed from the shelf."

"What are some examples?"

" _Tales of a Gutsy Ninja_ , _Nihon Shoki,_ and _Night Crow_."

"Mm-hm, and what can you tell me about those books?"

Kimiko gave a detailed rendition of each novel, all of her descriptions accurate and correct.

Bullock nodded. "What's the worse memory you can recall of you and your parents?"

"…one time, I can't remember what I did, but Daddy got so angry with me, that he took the Stick, a thin piece of wood, but long and hard, and he spanked me with it for ten minutes straight." Kimiko drew in on herself as she 'remembered.' "Sometimes I still feel it."

"Brutal," Bullock said. "The best memory?"

"…it was especially cold one night, and so Daddy made all of us hot chocolate, with mint flavor, and he made the fire especially big. We slept on the floor, on top of the real big pillows."

"Mm-hm. Did you want to stay an only child, or do you wish you had siblings?"

"Sometimes I wish I had a big sister to play with, or a little brother."

"Uh huh."

They spent another hour together, coming up with memories and experiences, solidifying them all into Kimiko's conscious and subconscious memory.

"We're done here," Bullock said. "Go to Yūwaku. With her, you'll build up your personality and your style of dress."

Kimiko nodded, and went to the yellowette.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Think fast!"

Yūwaku threw the package of training pants at Kimiko's head. Instead of catching them, she was hit in the face. Yūwaku nodded. "Expected of a civilian child when faced with the throwing speed of a shinobi."

Kimiko peeled the pull-ups from her head. "Why did you throw your-" she caught herself before she could be hit. "Why did you throw some little boy's pull-ups at me?"

"Not a clue. So," Yūwaku clapped her hands with her signature predatory grin, "what kind of personality do you have, and how does your clothes reflect it? This should be easy now, with your work with Sukina and Bullock."

"When my parents were still alive, I was happy and bubbly and respectful. After they were killed and I was left to scavenge to survive, I became subdued, quiet, secretly bitter, but under all of that, I'm still the same. It just takes a lot to dig that back out of me."

"Great! Clothes?"

"Used to be bright and happy and exuberant and loud, but after becoming homeless and parentless…whatever I could find. I'm not picky."

"And if you were brought into a nice home with loving family?"

"…I guess neutral stuff. Plain, so I'm not noticed, because after being a thief for so long, I don't want to be noticed."

"Mm-hm. And your underwear?"

Kimiko was caught flat-footed on that one. "My underwear?"

"Yes, your underwear." Yūwaku wasn't grinning in a teasing manner, or even being funny. She was being serious, which could have been comical given such severity over a child's underwear, but there was nothing comical about Yūwaku's behavior.

"According to an old saying, each person has three faces: the one they show their friends, the one they show their family, and the one they show to themselves—that's the truest reflection of who they are. Because your underwear is only seen by you—traditionally speaking—it's the closest reflection of who you are as a person. warm-colored underwear reflects an extrovert; cold-colored underwear reflects an introvert; themed underwear, with designs and patterns, or characters, reflects an interest in something, and that interest reflects who you are. Do you follow me?"

Kimiko answered truthfully. "Yes."

Basically, the underwear you choose to wear is chosen based on your subconscious traits.

"Alright then…what kind do you wear, Kimiko? Are we talking briefs, hipsters, boy shorts, or bikinis? Bright, cool, bright and printed, cool and printed? Or do you walk on the wild side and don't wear any at all? Or are you a little weirdo and wear boy undies? Or are you a bit of a freak and wear something a little more…" Yūwaku indicated the pull-ups with a suggestive grin, "…absorbent?"

Kimiko stared at the woman. "There is something wrong with you…why would you even _think_ that?"

"Hey, on the long list of weird things you're going to find here in the Land of Water, diapers are going to be in the Casual Zone of things. But to answer your question: the last girl we helped make into a new person went the diaper route, claiming childhood injury left her incontinent—the mission involved a target with a diaper fetish, so it fit. So, considering what you have in mind, it might score you some extra pity points to still need a little protection during the day, or maybe watching your parents get murdered in front of you left you traumatized and now your bladder can't hold it like it used to, or at the very least, you still wet the bed. Take your pick, it's your story after all."

Kimiko just stared and stared and stared at the crazy woman with the yellow hair, wondering if there was psychologist or psychiatrist anywhere on the planet that could help Yūwaku and her screwed-up head.

After a solid minute of just silently staring at the yellowette, Kimiko finally spoke, "I wear bright-colored underwear, no prints, and since I was orphaned, I've worn the same pair since."

"Eww, gross. To get a pair of panties that dirty will take some work, but we can manage. I'd imagine the damage that'll do to your skin is at the very least a rash, possibly an infection, and you'd probably have some pee stains, probably even some poop stains…ew, dirty girl."

Kimiko crossed her arms. "Well, I _have_ been running around the streets for the past month, barely managing to survive. I think I can be forgiven for being dirty."

"Eh, you're still a stinky little brat. Let's recap: You were a bright and happy girl up until your parents were killed, and then you became a closed-up, defensive, jaded little one with trust issues and abandonment problems. You haven't changed your clothes in a month, and you smell like a barn that hasn't been cleaned in a decade. I'm also guessing you became good at scavenging and stealing, but you're still learning."

"Sounds good to me."

Yūwaku punched Kimiko in the stomach, making her fold over the fist with a gasp. If she had had food in her stomach, it would've come flying out, one end or the other. Yūwaku drew her fist back, and Kimiko fell to her knees, a bit of saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth. She looked up with betrayal on her face.

"'Sounds good to me' implies that you are agreeing to something someone else suggested. This is _your_ life, _your_ personality, _your_ memories. You own this, not me, not Shin'en, not anyone. You." Yūwaku's yellow eyes were cold. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm…I'm Kimi…Kimi…Kimiko…" she managed to wheeze.

Yūwaku bent down and picked the child up. "And don't you ever forget who you are. Now, go to Arashi. It's time to finish up."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Arashi was actually in Shin'en's room, and when Kimiko entered, she felt terrible, terrible dread. The way the man looked, the way he was standing, his eyes, the air around him…it all made Kimiko want to run to Sukina and hide in her arms.

Another great difference between Shin'en and Kimiko.

"I'm going to ask you some questions," Arashi said coldly. "What happens to you next will depend on your answers. Are you ready?"

Kimiko gulped and nodded.

"When was Shin'en born?"

"I-I don't know," she tried.

Arashi slapped her to the ground. "You shouldn't know who Shin'en is."

Kimiko nodded jerkily, getting back to her feet, cheek glowing red. The other three Ghosts entered, all of them in uniform, masks on, carrying candles in their hands, sweet smelling candles that made Kimiko feel woozy. Her mind began to feel like syrup-coated fuzz.

"What orphanage did you grow up in?" Arashi asked.

"I…didn't…I lived with my…with my Mommy…my Mommy and Daddy…"

"What were their names? Asuna and Matsua, yes?"

"No…" Kimiko shook her head, knowing that was wrong, but the proper names were escaping her. Her mind felt so choked, yet so warm and comfortable. Her entire body began to feel like it was wrapped in a fuzzy blanket, and she also felt like she was beginning to run a fever.

"Who are _we_?" a distant, distorted voice came from somewhere beyond the haze.

Kimiko was swaying, images and shapes and sounds twisting and spiraling. It felt like she was being touched, and there was movement about her skin, like removing and then adding. Her vision was obscured…maybe a dozen times, maybe twice? She couldn't tell.

Kimiko experienced vertigo, and four distinct objects moved into her vision. She latched onto them with her eyes, for they were the only things she could focus on. Sounds reached her ears, but she couldn't make them out. Was it speech? Warbles? Babble? Grunts? Chanting? Singing? Just…what?

The only thing she could safely say she was sure of was the small splash of warmth that came from inside her that spilled a little down her legs.

The four white faces of happy grins and mismatching eyes loomed closer and closer, until the only thing Kimiko could see was white…and then she saw not but black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Kimiko awoke in the box in the alley she had been sleeping in for the past four days, she was immediately aware of how dismal her situation was, like she always was aware. Her dress, once a vibrant pink, was now only brown, torn, and smelly, coated in mud and other things. Her hair, once a deep black, was so coated in dirt I was just a step above being the ground itself. Her once pretty face was covered in dirt as well, with scabs here and there from injuries suffered in the recent past.

Her mouth tasted foul, like it had since her parents were killed. She smelled, not just of body odor and grime, but of urine. Stray dogs and cats had no problem peeing on her while she slept; she still remembered when those two dogs fought each other because they had both marked her as theirs, and she remembered that other dog that had tried to get behind her….

Of all of it though, it was her underwear that pained her the most.

It was her favorite pair, the one that she had loved most because they matched her favorite dress. Now they were just as dirty and smelly as the rest of her. So coated in dirt that they were stiff and made cracking sounds when she moved, and they made her private parts itch, and they were crusty in the front from when she had peed on accident a few times, and they stuck deep in the back, riding up where they shouldn't and they didn't move from there.

They were tortuous and uncomfortable, but Kimiko dared not part from them. If she could've found somewhere safe to wash, she would've done so long ago and continued to do so, but everywhere she went it felt like she was being watched, like someone was waiting for her to show vulnerability, so they could do _things_ to her….

Anyway, it was a new day, and she had a rumbling tummy to satisfy. She hadn't been able to find anything in four days as of this morning, and the last time she ate out of the garbage, she had prayed to die.

Kimiko pried herself out of her box, and started off in the never-ending search for food and survival.

Come noontime, she deemed the city of Yukisora to be a danger to her health, and so she left, starving, stinking and searching. She got halfway over the bridge before her tiny little body gave out, and she was sure she was going to die there, and people were just going to let her body rot away where it lay.

But, the next thing she knew, she heard voices and when she cracked her eyes open, she saw a strong-looking man, a kind man, like her Daddy.

He asked her what her name was, and, with as much strength as she could muster, she answered.

"Kimi…ko…Kimiko…"

And with the last of her strength for the day spent, she fell unconscious.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And that's how Yūrei uses method acting to make someone into a new person. By beating the old person out of them, hitting them every time an inkling of knowledge that the new person shouldn't have pops up, remaking their history, building every facet of their new personality, down to the underclothes, and then hammering it all in with drugs and hypnosis.**_

 _ **Now, Kimiko Kazuya is a completely separate entity from Shin'en Yūrei, but Shin'en is not gone, just dormant in the subconscious, like Percy in**_ **Green-Eyed Ghoul** _ **when he was sorting himself out and Persia was in charge for the time being.**_

 _ **You might be asking how Kimiko is supposed to do her mission if she doesn't remember anything about the Ghosts, and the answer is simple: subliminal messages. Yūrei programmed Kimiko well.**_

 _ **I'm thinking maybe three chapters of Kimiko and the Yasaka family, before moving to the next arc.**_

 _ **Also,**_ _ **no**_ _ **, not every personality is going to get their own arc, because Gatou is already becoming a thing in Shin'en's head, and he just "comes out" to torture people.**_

 _ **Until next time!**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	18. The Forgotten Family: Pt 1

_The Forgotten Family: Pt. 1_

 _ **And now we enter a narrative setting, and I get to see if I can accurately write an orphaned girl coming to love and accept the kindness and benevolence of strangers.**_

 _ **Should be interesting.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Naruto or PJO…but I do own the Yasaka family. Bow to me, bitches.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next thing Kimiko knew, she was soaking wet and the air smelled lovely. She was in water, warm, cozy water, and she felt tremendously better (Shin'en though she knew not of, a child of Poseidon was she still). It smelled like lavender soap, and bubbles tickled her body.

Kimiko thought she had finally died, and this is what the Pure World was like…and then the hands touched her.

She jerked with a startled scream, splashing water as she bolted away as fast as she could, given the resistance of the water. When she felt a safe enough distance, she looked behind and saw a beautiful woman gently slide into the water, graceful and elegant.

She had long, dark hair, gentle green eyes, elvish features, with a sharp jaw and slanted eyes, her skin was fair.

She was looking at Kimiko with a soft smile, eyes warm and full of mirth. It eased the orphan, if only slightly, to recognize no ill intent coming from the woman. In the brief moment of inaction, Kimiko was able to take in the rest of where she was.

A bathroom, easily the size of her old house, decorated in opulence and furnishings that only the wealthy could afford. The tub itself was humongous and built into the wall. The wall had been cut out to allow room for a giant fountain that quietly spewed water that drained down from bowl to bowl before spilling into the tub. From the ceiling came eight golden pipes that dipped down into the water, no doubt adding warmth.

There were probably spouts along the sides of the tub to allow more water inside, but Kimiko was done focusing on the giant tub she was in. Now she wanted to know more about where she was, and who she was with.

"Good morning," the woman said. "We feared you wouldn't make the night. I am Aiemi Yasaka. You are in my private bathroom, in my home."

Kimiko stared. "…why?"

"My family and I were coming home from a charity we were hosting in the capital, and my husband saw you lying on the bridge, seemingly dead to the world. He found a pulse in you, and so he brought you to our home."

"…why?"

Aiemi's lips quirked up. "Is kindness from strangers such a difficult concept to grasp for you?"

"I spent a month fending for myself in Umi. You tell me if it's a hard concept to grasp."

"Fair point," Aiemi conceded. Her gaze softened, becoming one of sympathy.

"Stop looking at me like that," Kimiko muttered as she glowered at the water. "I'm not helpless."

"Certainly not," Aiemi laughed. "Any child who can take the world for a month by herself at such a young age is a child worthy of my respect."

"And what's your respect mean for me?" Kimiko glared. "Should I expect to be cleaning the house as payment for your services, or can I expect to be sent on my way with nothing more than a backpack and some old clothes?"

"That is up to you," Aiemi asked. "What happens next in your life is your decision. You can get out of my bathtub right now and walk out the front door, naked as you are. You can take advantage of us, if you like, eating our food, occupying one of our guest bedrooms, ordering our servants to your heart's content. You can even help tidy up, maybe even teach my sons a thing or two about keeping their room in an orderly fashion." The woman's eyes softened again.

"You don't even have to leave if you don't want to. You can stay here as long as you like, living with me and my family. You can even attend the same school as my children, should you so desire. That life you've been living, a rat on the street, cared for by none…it can be over."

"What are you…what are you saying?" Kimiko backed away another step.

Aiemi's eyes became pained, far away, but she schooled herself. "We'll talk about that another time. For now, come over to me. You are filthy and need to be cleaned."

Kimiko blinked once. "I can wash myself."

"Child," Aiemi said sternly, in the same tone of voice that Kimiko's mother had used whenever she did wrong, "you are a guest in my home, and you haven't gone with a proper bath in a month. You smelled so rancid that I wasn't sure you hadn't soiled your underwear like a toddler. I cannot, in good faith, allow a lady of any walk of life to go about smelling like the waste of an animal. Now get over here so I can wash you."

Kimiko, who had gone pale as ivory at Lady Yasaka's tirade, just nodded rapidly and paddled over to the woman's embrace. The first minute was tense and rough, as Kimiko's issues with trust made Aiemi's every touch like the cut of a knife, but soon enough, calm settled over the girl, and she gave herself to the ministrations.

The tender caresses.

The gentle touches.

The loving rubs.

The feeling of motherly embrace.

Kimiko lost track of time as she let Aiemi wash her, feelings inexperienced for so long that she forgot she had them came bubbling up. Feelings of being cared for and protected; feelings of being provided for and being looked after; feelings of unconditional love and acceptance.

Eventually, Aiemi ran out of places to clean, at least, places she was allowed to touch at this point in the budding relationship.

"There. All done."

Kimiko turned over in the water and wrapped her arms and legs around Aiemi, holding on tightly, clinging to the euphoric feelings of being held and treated with affection. Aiemi was shocked at first, but she quickly got over it, wrapping her own arms around the orphan hugging her.

Shin'en's strategy had worked swimmingly. By assuming the guise of a girl, playing on the Yasaka matriarch's devastation over the death of her newborn daughter nine years ago, he had infiltrated Lady Yasaka's heart. The problem was: he wasn't in control of anything.

Kimiko was in control, and all she wanted was love and a family again. She would have it soon enough, when she got over her trust issues, but she still had a mission to complete. Oh well, all in due course.

Aiemi just held Kimiko, held her for a long time until she started snoring softly. The Yasaka matriarch chortled to herself. Then, with skill born from raising three children, she rose from the enormous bathtub, and dried both herself and Kimiko off without waking the girl. She was even able to dress her, too. Slipping a plain pair of underwear up her legs, and a simple white nightie over her head.

A servant had suggested diapers for sleep in case of an accident, but Aiemi had waved those concerns. Kimiko was a big girl, and didn't need diapers. When she had to go, she would go to the bathroom.

Such was Lady Yasaka's faith in the child she hoped to adopt very soon.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

To say Kimiko was malnourished was like saying Yagura was strong.

No, the girl was built like a twig, her ribs poking out from her chest, and her stomach was sunk in just enough for any novice doctor to declare her anorexic, but if Aiemi's understanding was correct, Kimiko had been out in the streets of Umi for a month, scavenging to survive.

She was clearly exhausted, with consciousness coming and going.

Aiemi was eventually able to get Kimiko to stay awake long enough to feed her.

"I know it's not much, but your stomach can't handle a large meal after so long without proper nourishment."

Four chicken nuggets and a small glass of water.

Kimiko's mouth watered, a little bit of saliva falling from the corner of her mouth. She was about to inhale the food before her, but Aiemi's hand clamped down on her shoulder. "Slowly. Don't make yourself sick."

Kimiko just nodded, and began to eat one bite at a time, taking a sip of water periodically, all under the supervision of Aiemi. When Kimiko finished, she received praise.

"Good girl!" Aiemi raised a hand, and Kimiko reared back and slapped it with great enthusiasm. "Nice arm. Now, do you want to take another nap, go meet my husband and my children, or do you want to go play?"

"Mmm…" Kimiko hummed as she thought. "Your husband was the one who picked me up off the street, right?"

"Indeed."

"…what does that mean?"

"It means yes."

"Oh. Then _indeed_ , I want to meet your husband."

Aiemi's lips quirked. "Follow me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daizo Yasaka was in his study, reviewing papers and documents (not the incriminating kind), when there was a knock at his door. "Enter," he intoned.

Aiemi opened the door, leading a little one gently by the hand.

"Ah, Kimiko. It warms my heart to see you well after your experience." Daizo rose from his desk and walked to be in front of his wife. He kneeled to be more level with Kimiko. "I want you to know," he said quietly, "that you have mu utmost respect. Very few people can survive what you did, and even fewer could do it at your age."

Kimiko only understood about three-fourths of that, but what she did next had both adults shocked. She threw her arms around Daizo's neck, and squeezed with as much strength as her tiny, malnourished body could produce.

Surprised as he was, Daizo had enough presence of mind to put his arms around Kimiko and give a gentle hug back.

"Thank you so much for saving me," Kimiko said quietly.

"You are very welcome."

Daizo gave a light squeeze, and they disengaged.

Aiemi cleared her throat. "Kimiko has something she wants to ask you, dear."

Daizo looked at the child expectantly, who suddenly became very self-conscious and nervous. She crossed a leg behind the other, gripped her elbow behind her back, looked off to the side at the ground, and her face flushed. All clear signs of embarrassment and apprehension.

Daizo, being the strong, authoritarian man that he was, having raised his three children with a firm grip, was having none of this butterfly-in-the-stomach business.

"Kimiko," he said sternly, "letting nervousness and doubt inhibit you at the moment of truth is something I do not tolerate in my house. You have something to ask of me, and I expect you to do so with a straight back and a strong voice. Now, compose yourself and ask."

Kimiko swallowed, reminded very much of her own father, and how, whenever she wanted to ask for something, he didn't want her to be nervous about it. Now feeling a little comfortable due to the familiarity of the situation, Kimiko asked her question.

"May I live with you? Forever? Pretty please?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daizo glanced into his wife's eye, and then looked back at Kimiko. "Please, wait outside the door for a little bit. We'll be right back out."

The little girl nodded, though fear had crept its way into her.

Aiemi gave Kimiko a reassuring pat on the shoulder, before she shut the door. There was a quiet hissing sound as the study became airtight. It was a marvelous place, this study. The floor was big as that of a small house, and the walls were lined with book shelves, with all the shelves covered with books. Old stories, myths, legends, children's books, records decades and centuries old, and a lot of books were hollow, containing within them stacks of cash and valuables, a secret fortune for a rainy day.

The floor was a green swirled with black, and the ceiling was black marble, painted to resemble a detailed rendition of the night sky, complete with the Milky Way Galaxy. The lamps gave off a soft glow, enough illumination to read without damaging the eyes, but not so bright as to keep one awake. The air carried with it the scent of hazelnut cream.

In short, the study was a place of relaxation and unwinding, a place of peace.

Though that didn't stop the Lord and Lady Yasaka from making a baby in here before.

"When I brought her into our carriage, I didn't have the foresight to see you attaching to her so quickly," Daizo stated. "In a few days, maybe two weeks, yes, but not in a few hours. Kimiko must be a remarkable young woman."

"She is," Aiemi said clearly.

Lord Yasaka pulled out a bottle of bourbon and a couple of glasses. "Have you not entertained the idea that she is lying to us?" He poured his glass, and then he poured the other, handing to his wife.

"I have," Lady Yasaka answered. She accepted the offered liquor. "However, her state of malnourishment, her constant falling in and out of consciousness, and the fact that her underwear was so caked in dirt and stained with urine that it had solidified and kept its shape when I pulled them off her bottom—which I had to treat with the rash cream we once used on our children the skin was so irritated—have filled me with the confidence that this is no simple act."

Daizo hummed, and drank a sip. "And if I told you that my contacts in Yagura's cabinet had caught wind of a new hunter ninja program, placing children in deep cover positions to infiltrate homes and have them kill the families that took them in in order to emotionally condition them, what would you say?"

"I would say you are lying to me," Aiemi deadpanned.

Daizo smirked and took another sip. "Yes, that would be a rather elaborate lie. Still though, we have heard the stories of the street children. Boys and girls caught up in the underground, forced to kill and steal for the benefit of their handlers, forced to guilt-trip their way into homes, to rob them and loot them and kill those living there. How do we know that Kimiko isn't a participant, willing or unwilling, in such a program?"

"Why bring her in if you hold so much suspicion about her?"

"As I told Uzu: it is our job as human beings on this Earth to provide what we can for those in need. If they take advantage of us, then that is their wrong and they will be punished for it. I trust that Kimiko is a human being with a story to her. Her parents may have been murdered, she may have been fending for herself for a month…or maybe she just ran away from home, or maybe her dress was slashed and ripped with intention, her underwear soiled through artificial means. We will never truly know."

Aiemi grew impatient with her husband's monologue. "Are we going to adopt her, or not?"

Lord Yasaka finished his bourbon, then he sighed. "My wife, I know what is in your mind. Do not forget that she was my daughter too, and do not think that I don't know they would be the same age today if she had lived."

"Then why hesitate?" Aiemi protested. "We wanted a daughter and she was taken from us by evil forces, and now a little girl in need comes to us with no home, no family, and a desire to be with us, presenting an opportunity to have what we've so desired for so long, and yet we hesitate to take this opportunity? Why?"

Daizo fully faced her. "Because this world is fraught with treachery. I am not blind to the lies and deceit of mankind, whatever their size or shape. I take it as my duty to help others, yes, but I will not place the wellbeing of my family in jeopardy just to satisfy my personal desires."

"She is a little girl," Aiemi defended.

"And you are delusioned with emotion."

"So, we're just going to kick her out?"

"Goodness gracious, no," Daizo said, and Aiemi blinked. "We are going to adopt her, yes. I had every intention of it as soon as I saw your eyes." He moved and embraced his wife, standing a head taller than her. "But don't forget that she is not our blood child," Lord Daizo whispered tenderly. "She is not a replacement. She is a stranger that we love out of the goodness of our hearts. In time, that will change, but not yet. Do not become blind to reason, my beloved wife, for it may be our deaths."

"Why?" Aiemi whispered. "Why can't we have good things in this world, without fear of being burned?"

"…because things we deem to be good come from the fires of want."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Honestly, it was desperation.

Kimiko might've been exposed to the harshness of life for a month straight, starving, being peed on by dogs, no baths or brushing her teeth, being tricked and kicked, no toilet paper, not even proper shelter. It toughened her up, but through it all, the only thing she wanted was her parents back.

They were gone forever, but new parents had come along. On a subconscious level, they were substitutes, fill-ins for what could never be again, but they were an acceptable proxy, one that Kimiko's desperate little mind latched on to and refused to let go of.

Sitting outside the study, unable to hear what was going on inside, she was racked with nervousness and anxiety.

Kimiko heard footsteps come from down the hall, and she looked to see the eldest Yasaka child, Uzu. She was a beauty, with the same sharp features as her mother, but she had her father's eyes. She was expressive, if her hair was anything to go by, being dyed a shade of blue that was hardly natural. Her clothes were simple enough, as she was in her lounge wear: simple shorts and a t-shirt, no bra and no shoes.

She had her eyes closed as she walked, for what reason Kimiko didn't know, but Uzu, when she walked by, cracked a lid open and stopped when she saw Kimiko sitting on the floor, legs crossed with a hand tucked in her lap to keep her underwear from being seen, like her mommy had taught her.

"What are you doing?" Uzu asked, none too warmly.

Kimiko gulped under the hard gaze. "I-I'm waiting for Aiemi a-and Daizo to finish talking."

"Talking about what?"

"Talking about…if I can stay here…with you guys…"

"Oh, if that's all."

Uzu took two steps and bent at her knees, resting her weight on the balls of her feet. She leaned in close to Kimiko. If the situation had been tweaked a little, this could've been a romantic sight. Instead, it was scary.

Uzu's dark eyes were like portals to the abyss itself.

"I don't care if they decide to adopt your smelly little ass or not, I won't ever believe you. I don't care if you're some street rat orphan with a sob-story, I firmly believe you're here to kill us and rob us. I believe your part of some underground sect and this is either your initiation or just another job. On the flip side, if you are actually telling the truth, I still don't care. I'll never see you as family, so if you ever call me _sis_ , or _sissy_ , or _sister_ , or anything endearing like that, I will beat you like a drum. Am I clear?"

Kimiko nodded shakily.

"Good. Since I know my parents, I can guess they've already got the papers ready to be signed, so it's best to lay some ground rules now: you are not allowed in my room for any purpose, you do not speak to me unless I speak to you first, I am not your shoulder to cry on for any reason, and I will not be cleaning up after you, so whatever mess you make, whether you trash your room or the kitchen, or you pee yourself or your bed, or you take a dump in your pants, you will be cleaning all of that up yourself. Clear?"

Kimiko nodded.

Uzu nodded once as well, and then got up to leave. Then she heard something and whipped around. "What was that? I don't think I heard you. Care to speak up?"

Kimiko looked at her. "I said I don't know why everyone thinks I have accidents. I'm potty trained."

"Probably has something to do with the fact that when your underwear was taken off, there were stains in the front and the back like you just couldn't hold it long enough to make it in time. Like a baby."

"I'm not a baby," Kimiko growled. And she stood up, bringing her to her full 4'2.

"That sounds more like a threat than a statement. Are you threatening me, little baby?" Uzu stepped up, and she was, being seventeen, a full foot taller than Kimiko.

"Call me a baby one more time," Kimiko said in the darkest voice she could manage as a nine-year-old girl.

"Or what? Are you gonna piddle on the floor? Throw your poop at me like a monkey? Or are you gonna drool on me?"

"Heh, don't tempt me, heifer."

Uzu's eyes narrowed. "What did you just call me?"

"You heard me. What? Can't hear properly with those tiny little ears?"

Uzu's ears were, in fact, kind of small, a fact that she was aware of, and self-conscious about. So, at the blow to her person, she cracked her knuckles. "I'm going to kick your stinky ass so hard you'll need diapers for a year just so you can sit down."

"Bring it, heifer," Kimiko challenged.

She had seen her parents murdered. She had survived the savageness of the city all by herself. She had almost been raped by a dog. She had been kicked by boys at the playground for trying to join their game. She used to be Mommy's Little Lady, but the trials of life had changed her, despite how much she still craved family and parents, and as such, she had dealt with worse than Uzu, and she wasn't taking this girl's attitude lying down.

She might not have been able to win a fight against the much older girl, but she wasn't going to give in and take it, either.

Just before blows could come to, the door to the study opened, and the Yasaka Lord and Lady exited to see their daughter and soon-to-be-adopted daughter ready to fight. Daizo stepped in immediately.

"There will be no fighting in this house!" he thundered. "I do not want to hear excuses or reasons, just know that whatever conflict you were about to enter has been ended. Is that clear?"

Uzu straightened, face wiped of everything. "Crystal, Father. I apologize for any dishonor I may have brought to the family. I humbly beg forgiveness." She bowed a little at the waist.

"You are dismissed to your room," Daizo glowered. "We will have words later."

Uzu had no outward reaction beyond straightening and walking down the hallway without a word.

"And you," Daizo turned to Kimiko, eyes softer but not completely devoid of steel. "My wife and I have decided to adopt you as our own." Kimiko's eyes widened and began to glisten. "But," the word stopped her from jumping at them in a hug, "there are rules that I expect you to follow as my daughter, and one of those rules is no fighting in this house."

Kimiko opened her mouth to build her argument, but Daizo raised a hand, and Kimiko closed her mouth.

"I do not care what was said, or what was done. The reality of the matter is that you and Uzu almost came to blows before me in my home. It takes two to make conflict, Kimiko, two to keep that conflict going, but only one to end it. Uzu is bigger than you and has been trained in the martial arts. No, she is not a shinobi, but she can bring great harm to you. If you are going to fight her," Daizo winked, "do so in more subtle ways."

Kimiko winked back. "Okay."

And then Daizo opened his arms. "Well? Do I get a hug from my new daughter today or not?"

Kimiko practically squealed as she tackled Lord and Lady Yasaka, tears in her eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **That ends the chapter, with Kimiko officially adopted by the Yasaka family. Conflict has been set up with Uzu, the oldest sister, and the twin brothers, Kaneda and Tetsuo will be introduced next chapter.**_

 _ **Speaking of next chapter, it will be more fluff, with the Yasaka clan going shopping for new clothes, though the ending will get things going.**_

 _ **I've been informed that people are wanting to see Persephone and co. have a little bit of screen time. Is this a general agreement, or is the majority enjoying the story without Greek reactions? Depending on feedback, I'll either add a scene of what's going through Persephone's mind, or not.**_

 _ **You might be wondering why the chapter title of "Forgotten Family." That is because, as it has been stated multiple times, Shin'en views himself as having three families: the orphans he grew up with, Yugito, Bee, Darui, Cee, and Ei from the Cloud, and Yūrei.**_

 _ **Sorry for the lack of gratuitous violence and graphic torture, but not everything Shin'en did in the Mist involved gruesome slaughter.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_

 _ **Like seriously, Review.**_


	19. The Forgotten Family: Pt 2

_The Forgotten Family: Pt. 2_

' _ **Kay, I'll do a little bit on the Greeks, probably like a bit of a dream.**_

 _ **I see I'm doing a decent job on the family-esque setting, if the Reviews are anything to go by, so that warms my heart.**_

 _ **Anyway, bonding chapter with more family drama, and a school…featuring big brothers.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO, but I do own the Yasaka family

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimiko fell back asleep when she was hugging her new Mom and Dad. She was still a malnourished little thing, and the only food she had in her was a handful of chicken nuggets and a glass of water. Hardly a meal for a growing girl. Given all the recent excitement, almost fighting Uzu, being adopted, and the energy expended in her jumping hug, Kimiko burned herself out just like that, and reentered the land of dreams.

And what a dream it was.

Lady Aiemi had taken Kimiko to her new room, and, having nothing better to do, got comfortable in the bed and snuggled with her new daughter. Lord Daizo had gone to Uzu's room to have those words with her, but that comes a little later.

For now, Kimiko's dream.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She was standing in a grassy field at night. In the Shinobi World, a world free of the pollution created from burning fossil fuels and massive sprawling metropolises with millions of lights, the night sky was brilliant with millions and millions and twinkling stars, the massive swath of the Milky Way dazzling across the heavens. In this world, the full moon wasn't the centerpiece of the celestial painting, but a mere tiny piece of it.

Standing before Kimiko on this grassy hill on this warm night, was a girl. She was in her mid-teens, and very beautiful. She had natural sun-kissed skin, flawless, too, with no zits or bumps or scars. She was decently tall for a girl, standing well over five-and-a-half feet, but not six feet. Her black hair looked silky and well-maintained, having a fullness to it while also being smooth and flat, with no errant strands or locks. She was wearing jean shorts that came down a few inches above her knees and looked loose enough to where her figure wasn't hugged so much that everyone stared, and she was wearing an orange shirt, tied off at the waist in a bunch, exposing a little of her midriff.

Her eyes though…her eyes were strange.

The sclera was pure black, the iris a venomous green, the pupils vertically slit like a serpent's.

"Fascinating," the girl said. The movement of her lips exposed her black gums and tongue, and her translucent teeth, the canines sharper than usual. "I truly wish you and I had more time to spend together. It would've been…fun."

The world turned and Kimiko fell to her butt, vision swimming. It all cleared though, and when she next took in her surroundings, she saw that nothing had changed, only that the strange-eyed girl was missing.

However, there was a new girl, one that looked exactly like the old one, only her shirt wasn't tied into a bunch, and her eyes were normal, the iris being a stunning shade of green like that of the sea. Tears were going down her face, and her mouth was open in shock, exposing her normal gums and clean, white teeth.

She struck a chord in Kimiko, and the girl wasn't sure why.

Then a name popped into her head.

"Sephy," Kimiko chirped.

A dam broke in Sephy, because she ran forward and fell to her knees, enveloping Kimiko with a sob that turned into crying. For her part, Kimiko just patted Sephy's back, not understanding why she was crying.

"I can't," Sephy sobbed. "I can't watch anymore—I can't watch you go through anymore! It's-It's too much!"

"It's okay," Kimiko said. "I'm strong. I can handle it."

Sephy stopped her crying, suddenly doing a complete one-eighty. "No. I'm not letting you go through anymore of this. I'm taking you back."

Kimiko furrowed her brow. "Back where?"

"Back home. To camp Half-Blood."

"What?"

"It's okay," Sephy said firmly. "I'll show you, and it'll all be better."

With that, the teenager scooped up Kimiko in her arms and started running. Kimiko didn't particularly understand what was going on, but she felt like whatever Sephy was trying to accomplish was…without a point.

Like, it wasn't going to work, no matter what she tried.

And then there was a loud voice. "Persephone! Stop!"

She did stop, and she looked at the person who had yelled, glaring. The person who had yelled was another teenage girl, dressed in jean shorts and an orange t-shirt. Her skin was fair, hair blonde and curly, and her eyes were dark gray. They too, were glistening with tears. Kimiko frowned in distaste.

She didn't like this new girl.

"Why?" Sephy bit out. "You've been watching too. I know you don't want to see anymore."

"No, I don't. But I know that if we pull out of this too early, without seeing all of it, he won't be okay. He'll be damaged and weird, and it'll all be your fault."

"I don't care! He's my little brother, and I can't just let him be tortured like this! I can't let him go through any more of this crap!"

"YOU HAVE TO!" the blonde thundered, and Kimiko frowned deeply.

No one yells at her Sephy.

"Think of what you'll do to him!" the blonde continued. "Without his soul complete, he'll be a vegetable! Bound to a wheelchair, drooling all over himself, having to eat through a tube, peeing in a diaper, _you_ having to change him—think of what that'll be like! For you, your mom, Paul, _and_ Percy! Do you really want to do that to your little brother!? Do you think someone as strong and powerful and prideful as Percy would appreciate you _fucking_ him over because of your selfishness!?"

" _MY_ selfishness? How is it selfish to get him out of here? How is it selfish to bring him back home, and save him from this life? How is it selfish to spare him from more of this nightmare!?"

"BECAUSE HE DOESN'T WANT TO BE SAVED, OR RESCUED, OR SPARED!" the blonde roared, tears of her own in her eyes. "I _hate_ seeing him like this. I _hate_ that he went through this. I _hate_ what it's doing to you as you watch it happen—I hate what it's doing to all of us, but Percy made his choice. He chose this life and this path, and he chose all the hardship that comes with it. Do you honestly think he'd ever forgive you if you deprived him of his revenge?"

Sephy's face became one of conflict.

"Put Kimiko down, Persephone," the blonde said gently. "We need to get started again. The faster we move through the memories, the faster we get done with them."

"It's okay, Sephy," Kimiko said. "I'll be alright."

The older girl looked at her little sibling, and she broke down crying again, burying her head in the crook of Kimiko's neck. Again, Kimiko just patted Sephy's back, not having a clue of what else to do. Firm hands gently grabbed her sides, close to her armpits, and those hands gently pulled her from Sephy's arms.

Kimiko pouted as she was set down by the blonde girl.

"I don't like you," Kimiko said.

And then she kicked Annabeth between the legs.

It got weird right after that. The world erupted into a dazzling light show, and Kimiko was sent zooming though a kaleidoscope of galaxies and colors, accompanied with images of people's faces. Faces of those crying, faces of those neutral, faces of those shocked, faces of those sneering, faces of those interested, faces of those neutral, and faces of those otherwise perverse.

It didn't make any sense to Kimiko, none of it made sense, but the bright, bright light shined brightly at the end, and Kimiko went through.

When she woke up, snuggled against Aiemi, warm and cozy, she remembered not a thing from her dream.

Like it had never happened.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Daizo knocked once on his daughter's door, one single hard bang, and then he opened the door. He didn't care if she was in the middle of changing clothes, bathing, lounging, doing homework, or fingering herself. He had business to conduct, and this was _his_ house.

He'd go in where he wanted to, when he wanted to, and not a damn person was going to stop him.

Uzu was waiting for him, sitting erect on her bed, face like stone. "Father."

"I know of your feelings regarding Kimiko, and I agree."

"Then why-"

Daizo held a hand up, stopping her. "I know her past is questionable, her intentions unclear, but for now, all we have to go on is her word, and her word is that she's an orphan who has lived by herself on the streets of Umi. We have nothing to dispute her, and so we won't. Instead, we will perform our civil duty and give her the home she wants."

"At the cost of our lives?"

"Potentially, yes."

Uzu frowned. "I do not understand the merit of being so generous if it could cost us our lives."

Daizo smirked. "Of course you don't. You are young, and with much to learn. For now, however, I will not tolerate any rough-housing or fighting in my house. Kimiko is your sister now, and I expect you treat her as such."

Uzu said nothing, but her argument was evident in her eyes.

Lord Yasaka allowed but a small amount of leeway. "Do not start any conflict. Avoid her if you have to keep yourself under control. But, please, daughter, try to make the most of it. As far as I can see, Kimiko is here to stay forever. It'll do you no good to resign yourself to constantly hating her."

"…we shall see."

Daizo smirked. "Indeed, we shall."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimiko was fed another small meal of chicken nuggets, but this time she got a glass of juice instead of water. Seeing as how it had been morning, and now afternoon, and the Yasaka family had no engagements for the day, Lord Daizo deemed it necessary to fill his new daughter's wardrobe with clothes of her choice.

He also declared it a family outing, much to Uzu's chagrin.

The boys, though, Kaneda and Tetsuo, were excited, because this was the first time they got to see their new sister.

Their _little_ sister.

Now they had someone they could tease and play with, instead of their meanie big sis.

"I'm Kaneda!"

"I'm Tetsuo!"

Then in tandem, "We're twins!"

Kimiko was awestruck, having never, ever in her short little life, seen twins before. It had been scary at first, seeing two of the same person, but they grew on her quickly within the span of a few seconds.

"I'm Kimiko, and I have three siblings!"

The twins were thrown for a loop as they didn't get it. "Huh?"

"You, you, and Uzu."

"Ohhh~," the twins said.

Uzu glowered, but Kimiko just smiled at her with pure eyes. It made Uzu glare harder, seeing that Kimiko was genuine in her belief that she had three siblings. Uzu wanted nothing to do with the little girl, mistrusting of her and her intentions.

Beyond all of that, it warmed Daizo's and Aiemi's hearts to see their sons getting along with their new sister.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Malls did, in fact, exist in the Shinobi World. Coalitions of civilians getting together, pooling their money to build the facility and install their shops to sell their products, and then they hired on samurai to provide security detail to keep the peace and prevent theft. And since this particular mall was owned by the Yasaka family, it was also equipped with anti-shinobi tech, primarily chakra suppressors.

The first stop in the mall was the food court, where a fast food place was visited. Where everyone enjoyed a decent meal for their size, Kimiko was underfed (in her opinion), but the reason she only got two bites of a cheeseburger and a few sips of a coke was because A) she had already been fed—twice in fact—and B) she was still recovering from her malnourished state.

If you're confused about why you can't eat a lot of food after starving for so long: the short version is that the body's gotten used to no food, and suddenly piling on the nutrients brings about problems. You can look up the long version yourself.

Anyway, after the food was eaten (and an explanation to the twins over why they couldn't give more of their food to their new little sister) the Yasaka family went for the children's clothes section in Dockard's, to which the twins immediately dragged Kimiko over to the boys' section and began bombarding her with the prints of their favorite shows and characters from the television shows they watched.

Kimiko listened with rapt attention, letting Kaneda and Tetsuo have their time. She didn't particularly care for what they were talking about, as she was a country girl that grew up on a rice farm and didn't watch TV, but she was nice, born and raised to be courteous of others.

Eventually, Aiemi had to step in and tell her sons (gently, and with tact) that Kimiko didn't give a care in the world about their tastes, and then she guided her daughter over to the girls' section, to which Kimiko found several dresses and shirts/shorts combos that spoke to her, but no skirts, much to Aiemi's confusion, but it was eventually chocked up to Kimiko being Kimiko.

Anyway, the colors were all monochrome and bright, like pink, lime green, red, a bright blue, yellow, and white. A few trips into the changing room, and Kimiko was satisfied with her new clothes. After that, Aiemi sent her sons and husband away so that she and Kimiko could browse through the underwear. Uzu attempted to leave, but her mother insisted on her attendance, so that she could spend some time with her girls.

Kimiko's choice in "undies" (her choice of words made Aiemi smile at the cuteness and made Uzu deadpan at the childishness) was the same as her choice in dress: monochrome and bright, all without prints.

And then nature came to call, something that surprised Aiemi given that anything Kimiko ate should have been converted into energy, leaving no waste at all. But, there Kimiko was, a hand to the front of her pants, face strained. Aiemi saw an opportunity for her daughters to build a better bond.

"Uzu, please show Kimiko where the bathrooms are."

The teen just stared, but she felt eyes on her from afar, and she knew her father was looking at her, daring her to go against her mother in this place of business. So, swallowing her displeasure, Uzu nodded, and began walking away with a hand motion to Kimiko.

As she walked past her mother, her shoulder was grabbed.

"If she has an accident because you lead her around, you will be cleaning the urine out of her clothes with your mouth, and mopping the floor with your own clothes, which you will then proceed to wear back home. Am I clear?"

"…I think the time you've spent on issuing your threat has increased the margin for Kimiko wetting herself."

"Then I guess you better get a move on."

Aiemi released her oldest, and Uzu set off at a fast pace, more out of irritation than fear of the threat. Kimiko followed dutifully behind, straining to hold it. Uzu did perform the duty she was charged with, and she led Kimiko all the way into a stall, ending the interaction with a cold "Hurry up."

She waited outside the stall door, inspecting her nails, trying to tune out the steady splash followed by a few plops. Uzu's nose wrinkled at the ensuing smell, but she said nothing. The irate teen next heard the sound of toilet paper being drawn, torn, and rolled up, and then she heard a sharp, pained gasp, and it grabbed her attention.

"You okay?" she asked, though she didn't sound concerned.

"F-Fine."

"Then get moving. It stinks in here."

"'K-'Kay."

Kimiko wiped again, and she let out another pained yelp. Uzu raised a brow, now worried that she was going to be in trouble for whatever was going on with her… _sister_.

"U-Uzu…" Kimiko said. It sounded like she was holding back tears. "I-I need help…it…it hurts…"

"Oh, good God," the older girl grumbled under her breath. Using a tool she kept hidden on her person in case she was ever kidnapped, she slid open the lock on the stall, and saw what ailed Kimiko. She paled, "Oh my God…"

The skin around Kimiko's genitals was red and swollen, and in one spot, had split and was bleeding.

Uzu stared, caught flat-footed at the horrible spectacle. She didn't know what to do—she had never been in this situation. In her best guess, Uzu theorized that Kimiko's month on the streets, with only squalor as her constant companion, lacking any means to clean herself, had contracted rash, and she had been rubbing it when no one had been looking, and she had finally split the skin.

While Uzu was completely correct in her theory, that didn't mean she knew what to do. Leave Kimiko here and go get mall staff, go get her parents, do something immediate to help—looking at Kimiko, her eyes pleading, desperate for help right _now_.

Taking a deep breath to ease her mind, Uzu walked into the stall and kneeled. She grabbed Kimiko's hands in hers and spoke in a deceptively calm voice. "It's alright. You're going to be okay. Just don't panic, and don't touch yourself."

Perhaps years from this moment, perhaps just days, Uzu would look back at that line and sigh at how dirty it sounded, kicking herself for not using better words.

Anyway, Kimiko nodded shakily, fire coming from her privates. Uzu reached behind and flushed the toilet, eliminating at least one problem from this situation.

"Alright," Uzu said steadily, "how much were you able to clean up?"

Kimiko looked at her with a pained expression.

"Not much," Uzu surmised. "Okay, stand up. We need to finish cleaning you, so this doesn't get worse. Up, on your feet."

She helped Kimiko stand, and then she had to brace the girl when she almost fell over. Steadying both of them, Uzu embarked on a trial of maternity that she passed, despite how much it disgusted her. The next thing she inspected was Kimiko's underwear, and she took the growing blood stain in stride. Still bracing the weak Kimiko, Uzu produced a pad, always kept on her should the need ever arise unexpectedly, and she went about unfolding it and removing the adhesive protector, before sticking it in Kimiko's underwear.

"Okay, this is going to hurt, but I need you to tough it out. Can you be a strong big girl for me?"

Kimiko nodded shakily.

Without further preamble, Uzu grabbed the waistband of Kimiko's underwear, and yanked them into place. The child yelped at the flash of pain, and she collapsed into Uzu's arms.

Panting, clearly tired, Kimiko managed, "How…how did I…How'd I do?"

"You did great," Uzu said. "Now come on. We need to get you to the doctor." Uzu paused, and then asked, "Can you walk?"

Kimiko took a step and cried. Uzu caught her, and she shook her head. "Nope…can't walk…hurts too much…"

"Alright, then."

Uzu picked Kimiko up by the armpits and adjusted her grip to where both arms were under the child's bottom. Kimiko winced as her crotch was pressed into Uzu's side, the irritated skin protesting.

"Hey, you could handle the streets for a month, you can handle this for an hour, right?"

"R-Right."

"Good girl. Let's go get Mom and Dad."

"Thanks, S-Sis."

A lump suddenly formed in Uzu's throat. " _You're_ -" her voice broke, "You're welcome."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Yasakas were actually waiting outside the restrooms, Aiemi growing impatient, the boys getting restless, and Daizo thinking up how he was going to punish his oldest for her transgressions against his adopted youngest, when Uzu exited the bathroom, holding Kimiko against her hip, the latter visibly trembling and sweating, the former with a severe look on her face.

Uzu reached her family and said one line: "We need to go to the doctor."

The journey was rushed and silent, with Uzu giving a brief explanation of what happened. Strangely, when Aiemi moved to take hold of Kimiko, Uzu held tighter. Aiemi backed off.

Upon arrival at the doctor's, the only thing that got Uzu to let go of Kimiko, so she could be put on the cart and wheeled to the emergency room was the thundering voice of Lord Daizo Yasaka. Per protocol, only the parents were allowed to accompany the patient, and the Lord and Lady enforced this themselves, charging Uzu with looking after her little brothers, who were both in tears just because of the stress of the situation.

"Is Kimi going to be a-alright?" Kaneda sniffled.

Tetsuo had already buried his face in Uzu's shoulder, his shoulders shaking.

"Yes," was the teen's firm answer.

The doctor's diagnosis was simple after being given the story. The skin was inflamed due to an infection contracted from wearing her filthy underwear for so long, and her rubbing of the irritation, something she skillfully hid, had irritated the skin to the point of breaking, resulting in the bleeding. The cure was a stronger medical cream, some antibiotics, and strict orders to keep her hands away from her privates, and to watch her to make sure she didn't try to rub herself against anything and cause further irritation.

Help with going to the bathroom and bathing was advised.

The trip back home was a quiet one, yet a relieved one. Kimiko had fallen asleep again, shocking no one, but what did shock everyone, or at least Daizo, Aiemi, and Uzu (as the twins didn't understand) was that Kimiko had chosen Uzu as her snuggle buddy.

And Uzu didn't push her away.

The parents could both see it, the change in their daughter. This experienced had traumatized her, hammered into her a new set of feelings and emotions in regards to Kimiko. There was worry in Uzu's eyes now, concern, protectiveness, all the things that associated a true big sister with their little.

By the time the Yasakas returned to their estate, it was midevening, teetering on the line between turning in too early and turning in at a decent time. Uzu didn't care though. Kimiko was already fast asleep, still trembling from the adrenaline rush brought forth by the pain. Besides, she needed to be supervised to make sure she didn't rub herself and cause further harm.

So, Uzu tucked in, holding her little sister tightly to protect her from all things….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _1010 A.S._

 _September 7_

 _Yasaka Estate, outside the Land of Water's capital, Umi_

As hard as it might have been to believe, all of the past events took place in the course of a day. Kimiko waking up in the bathtub with Aiemi, being adopted, the brief spat with Uzu, the mall trip, converting Uzu, the doctor's, going back to bed…all in the course of a day.

Night fell, and the moon rose higher and higher, a waning crescent tonight. The hours passed, and the minutes passed, and the seconds passed…and then the zenith of the night came.

Fast as a bolt of lightning, Kimiko's eyes shot wide open, but they weren't the ocean blue she had come to be known for, but a cold, dark emerald green. Through Yūrei's programming, the time of midnight, when Kimiko was fast asleep, was _the_ time.

The time for the mission to be carried out.

The time for him to take control once more.

Shin'en was awake.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **As promised, Persephone's feelings on the matter, and her attempt at prematurely spiriting away her brother's soul out of the memory stream, incomplete and fractured as it was, only for Annabeth to intervene.**_

 _ **And Kimiko does not like Annabeth, as evidenced by her kicking the blonde in the clit.**_

 _ **Then we saw a little bit of fluff, followed directly by some realistic health issues that can be expected from one fresh out of homelessness. And Uzu came around. That happens when you have to help someone in dire need, especially when that person is someone you have to live with and don't like.**_

 _ **And our anti-hero is back. Details next chapter.**_

 _ **For now, please Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	20. The Forgotten Family: Pt 3

_The Forgotten Family: Pt. 3_

 _ **The Review bug is back. I'll chock it up to disinterest in the Kimiko arc, which I believe will end next chapter with tragedy. As is usual.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was strange, letting another entity that you yourself created run your body, putting your consciousness in the back corner so that they could have control for a time. You saw things, but you weren't sure they were real, like a dream. Everything was hazy and unclear, impossible to tell what was reality, and what was not.

Waking back up, Shin'en felt like he had just taken a few hours' worth of a nap, feeling energized and ready to go…mentally anyway. His body, in regards to his muscles, was fine. In regards to his extremities, there was a persistent itch between his legs that he dared not touch.

Shin'en had an ADHD moment in that his train of thought went down the track of whether that itch would be there if he changed his body back to a male, but he dashed that line of thinking.

He had a mission to do: search and locate any incriminating evidence concerning the Yasaka family's arms dealings.

The problem was going about that.

Shin'en could feel the chakra suppressors acting on his body, which made switching to his own anatomy a no-go. See, since chakra was created my mixing the yin chakra made by the prowess of one's mind and yang chakra made by the prowess of one's body, Kimiko's chakra was not Shin'en's chakra. Kimiko was a nine-year-old little girl recovering from malnourishment, while Shin'en was a ten-year-old little boy that had spent four years training with the best of the Hidden Cloud, fighting Jonin, Jinchuuriki and Kage, learning how to infiltrate, torture, and effectively kill.

There wasn't a single reason in all the world for Kimiko to have super powers.

Therefore, Shin'en kept his mind, which changed his Yin chakra, but he kept Kimiko's small body, therefore limiting his yang chakra, which was what the detectors in the house scanned for and suppressed, as machines designed for Yin chakra had yet to be invented, though there were those working on them.

Getting out of the bed was also going to be stupid, because movement could further irritate the infection, and it could wake Uzu, which would prompt the question of "What are you doing?" to which there were only a few answers:

"Going to the bathroom."

"Getting something to drink."

"Going exploring."

Those were the first three that came to mind, and the answers were as follows:

"Okay. I'll help you."

"Okay. Let me get you a glass.

"Alright. Let's go," or "No, we'll do that in the morning. Go back to sleep."

Shin'en doubted he could extract himself from Uzu's tight grip without waking her up, and even if he did succeed, a girl like her would wake upon subconsciously finding that he was gone, and he dared not use any jutsu inside this house.

So then, just how to go about searching this house for any kind of incriminating documents that proved the Yasaka family's ties to the arms trade? Did you bribe some of the night servants? Did you employ technology? Force someone to work for you?

Or did you simply cheat and use the divine powers that dwelled in you?

Kimiko's body might not have been a shinobi's, but it was a demigoddess's, and such, she had all the godly powers that Shin'en did.

The Abyss cased the place in an instant, sending his consciousness through the water vapor, building the estate's layout, its niches, its cracks. Its wiring systems, plumbing, ventilation, secret passages behind the walls that led to escapes. Shin'en scanned for any otherwise hidden rooms, and he did find a few, but none of them had anything inside worthy of note. In fact, all of them were felt more like storerooms and hidey-holes than anything, but he would check them out.

Shin'en drew in his hydro-sensing, and then he gathered himself.

Through force of will, he separated himself from his body, leaving the shell of his muscles and bones. It was the technique of Essence Projection, the demigod ability to look into the past, the present, and the future, the ability to watch things happen from the eyes of someone else. Largely uncontrollable, making demigods dread sleep as they had no idea what horrors they were going to see in the night, Shin'en did have control.

Through his hatred and sheer will, he was the master of himself, and he went where he wanted to go, saw what he wanted to see. During his time in the Cloud, it was something he did for fun, going out and seeing the world, seeing other places without having to take the time to travel. Right now, however, his Essence Projection would serve as his inspector.

Untraceable, and undetectable by all means in this world.

Unless you were a Sage. For some reason, when Shin'en had been on his first little Essence trip, he ended up in front of the Great Toad Elder, who had been able to sense him through his Sage powers. It didn't make sense to Shin'en how that worked, but it did.

So, unless you were a Sage, you could never know Shin'en's Essence Projection was there.

The demigod's incorporeal form glided through the halls, shooting through the rooms, quickly glancing over the things that could be seen. That was the weakness to this technique: you could fly, pass through solid objects, not be seen or touched, but you could not interact with the world in any way, and you could only see in any situation based on your normal levels of vision.

You couldn't touch people, turn on lights, open doors, or knock things over, and if you couldn't see in a place if you were physically there, then you couldn't see it if you were just Essence.

Shin'en supposed being only _half_ god was the source of these limitations, but since all godly powers didn't inhereintly make any sense, it made sense that the drawbacks would make no sense.

Does it make sense to you, or no?

Anyway, Shin'en glided through room after room, happening across those sleeping, those cleaning, those reading, those doing something with their hands under their covers, rooms with things he couldn't see properly, even with his superior night vision (rooms that he would have to visit in the day by making little subliminal hints to Kimiko), and rooms filled with barrels smelling of sake.

All in all, besides the study in which all papers were neat and arranged in such a way that only the tops could be read, the only rooms worthy of further investigation, as per Shin'en's judgement, was the study and a few others, all of which needed a physical examination.

Investigation concluded for the evening, Shin'en returned to his body, drew himself back in, and let Kimiko have control.

She did need her rest after all.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Morning came, and Kimiko awoke with a yawn, stirring Uzu, who also yawned. Kimiko then stretched, working out the kinks of not moving from one position for so long, but the movement of her stretch brought her underwear into tighter contact with her skin, irritating it. Her hand moved down to rub away the feeling, but Uzu was alert now, her mind not so addled with the haziness of sleep as one might expect from a teenager.

Her bigger, stronger hands closed around Kimiko's arms, and she gently yet firmly guided the girl's limbs up to her chest, and she held them there.

"Uzu~," Kimiko whined, distressed. "I need…I need to-"

"No," Uzu said firmly. "You doing that so much yesterday is what caused you to bleed. You are not scratching, rubbing or touching yourself at all today. Am I clear?"

"But what about after I pee?" Kimiko protested. "I need to wipe, and then I'll have to touch it anyway!"

"No, either I or Mother will take care of that for you."

"Gross!"

"No different than what your mother did when you were but a small child."

Uzu had thought about her words beforehand, the thoughts coming to mind as soon as Kimiko first started trying to rub. Truthfully, she didn't know what effect bringing up Kimiko's mother like that would have on the girl, but she was ready for anything.

"Oh, yeah. Mom did do that when I was little. Okay, you have my permission to clean me."

Or rather, Uzu thought she was ready for everything. Kimiko's casual acceptance of the circumstance at hand actually threw the Yasaka girl for a loop…but she recovered and rolled with it.

"Glad we could to an agreement. Now come on, it's time for the morning routine."

"Morning routine?"

"Mm-hm. Toilet, shower, drying, dressing, primping, and then breakfast."

"You make it sound like we're going somewhere."

"It's Monday. We're going to school."

Kimiko's world came to a grinding halt. Uzu could swear she heard the sound of tires screeching against asphalt, and she wondered how that was possible since she didn't know what tires or asphalt were.

Kimiko was a farm girl, the daughter of rice farmers. She didn't do "school." She helped her parents, and her school was the world around her and whatever her father or mother had to teach her when the moments came. Her friends were the children of other farmers, and they all got together to play games, yes, but something they all did was try to show each other up with whatever new knowledge they had gained. Besides, her parents had been opposed to public school, shinobi academy and civilian academy, citing that neither was structured correctly to fit the needs of modern children, and that academies existed for the sole purpose of cramming useless knowledge into one's head at the expense of the pockets of parents.

So, the thought of being in a public place, surrounded by strangers, being directed by some adult, being told what to do by people she didn't know or respect, all in an unknown environment—everything _unknown_ , and not just unknown, but against everything her parents had taught her—all of it piled on to create a sudden load of stress that had Kimiko tearing up and pushing her head in Uzu's chest.

Such a reaction had the teenager underly bewildered.

It was just _school_. Why such extreme emotion?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well, as it turned out, Kimiko wouldn't be starting school for another week. The academy that the Yasaka children attended required time to get all the paperwork processed for Kimiko's attendance, and besides that, Kimiko still had that infection about her nether regions that required attention, and neither Daizo nor Aiemi was about to put their daughter in a place of public where she could be seen doing something obscene like rubbing her crotch area, especially not around swarms of strict teachers and preppy schoolchildren.

Lady Aiemi still questioned why her husband insisted on an academy in Umi instead of private tutors, despite how many times he told her that he believed that children needed experience out of the house and away from their parents, so that they may gain knowledge of how to function without constant parental supervision, so as to better prepare them for life as adults.

Aiemi argued such a tactic was based on lifestyle and upbringing, but she was the wife. While respected, honored, and revered, there were traditions to be observed while married to the powerful Lord Daizo Yasaka, and submission to her husband was one tradition, as was open respect to all his decisions (while allowing for closet true feelings).

Such was historically accurate Japanese lifestyle.

Anyway, with Uzu, Kaneda, and Tetsuo off to the city to resume their weekly studies, that left Kimiko home alone to be supervised by her adoptive mother, and a battalion of butlers and maids.

Daizo had work to attend to in Umi, a business contact that he needed to speak with regarding private affairs.

It all flew over Kimiko's head, but it made Aiemi sigh in annoyance.

With a whole five days to be with each other, the Yasaka matriarch made the most of what she could, bonding with the daughter she never got to have, her second chance with a girl. They did many things together, with Aiemi teaching Kimiko how to play shogi, something the child found to be rather enjoyable, as she got to play as a supreme military commander, something that she did in full costume, wearing one of Daizo's fine robes, the size of which made it hang off her and trail everywhere around her.

Aiemi thought it was the cutest thing ever.

Another thing Kimiko thoroughly enjoyed was hide and seek, and since the Yasaka household was humongous and chock-full of manpower, games only got boring when Kimiko successfully hid for ten minutes and got bored. It became a new game for her, then, to go find another hiding place without getting caught.

Of course, she didn't know it, but it was Shin'en's subconsciousness making her look for secret passages and hidden rooms.

On the long list of things that could be done here at the Yasaka estate, Kimiko's second favorite thing was to ride the horses. The stablemaster was an older gentleman who had been breaking in horses for decades, and he was more than happy to teach Kimiko how to ride…she was a natural horse rider.

Of course, there was also that one cliché stubborn horse that refused to be broken, until Kimiko came along and made the stud submit to her with nothing but a stern voice, straight posture, and hands on her hips.

Aiemi and the stablemaster were both shocked at Kimiko's ability to ride and get along with all the horses.

Kimiko's absolute favorite thing to do was to bathe with her mother in the Yasaka's massive bathtub. The feel of the water, the aroma, the color, the temperature, how deep the tub was—deep enough to dive in and swim in some places—and she got to do it all with Aiemi.

They were attached now.

Whenever Kimiko became tired and fell asleep, she would always curl into her mother, nestling in and getting comfy in whatever position. Aiemi had no qualms with this, as it gave her an excuse to slow down and take a nap herself. Keeping up with a nine-year-old at her age was taxing, after all.

On Wednesday, it was declared that Kimiko's stomach could handle full meals now, and the very first thing she did with that information was whip up a batch of pancakes, eggs, and bacon, along with a quart of chocolate milk, and devoured all of it with almost ravenous fervor.

Aiemi and a few maids had stood off to the side, watching Kimiko eat a breakfast meal fit for a family of three all by herself, with startled expressions.

One maid leaned over to her lady and whispered, "You've brought in something from beyond this world."

Aiemi nodded in agreement.

Of course, the games of shogi and hide and seek, the horse rides, exploring the surrounding area, bath times, it was all fun, but not everything was fun. Kimiko had to take her antibiotics to treat her infection, Aiemi had to apply the rash cream, and whenever Kimiko needed to go to the bathroom, Aiemi was there to supervise.

Not necessarily there to wipe her daughter's nether regions, but to make sure that Kimiko didn't start to rub herself.

Aiemi was always making sure that Kimiko didn't start to rub herself.

With the coming of Friday evening, came the coming of Daizo and Kimiko's siblings. When the carriage rolled out front, drawn by the very beautiful horses, and the door was opened, the twins hopped out, Kaneda and Tetsuo.

"Kimi!" they shouted in tandem.

"Bubbies!"

Kimiko ran to meet them, and they all ended up on the ground, giggling. Uzu leaned into view, "Hey."

"Sissy!"

Kimiko sprang up from her big brothers, and wrapped herself around Uzu's body, arms around the neck, legs around the waist. Uzu place her arms under Kimiko's butt to support her weight, and the girl nuzzled the teen's cheek.

"I take it you missed me?"

"Uh huh."

"And how has my little angel been?" a deep voice came from behind Uzu.

Kimiko leapt down with an exuberant shout of "Daddy!"

Daizo opened his arms and caught his daughter when she jumped at him.

"I missed you, Daddy,"

"And I missed you. Did you behave for your mother?"

"Oh, she's been as perfect as any little girl could possibly be," Aiemi answered. "Sugar, spice, and everything nice." Lady Yasaka kissed her husband, and Kimiko giggled.

"Mommy gave Daddy cooties!"

"Oh, your mother gave me more than just cooties. You three get over here."

Uzu, Kaneda, and Tetsuo all gathered around their parents, and the Yasaka family engaged in a family hug, the sun setting behind them.

"Alright, who's hungry?" Daizo asked.

There was a chorus of "Me" as the little ones competed to see who could be the loudest, while Uzu just smiled sheepishly and Aiemi grinned.

"Does steak and mashed potatoes sound good for everyone?" There was a loud chorus of agreement. "Alright then. Boys, Uzu, help your mother ready the table and help her get the food ready. Kimiko, you're going to help me grill tonight."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yes, the Shinobi World had propane-powered grills, and it was something that Lord Daizo thoroughly enjoyed using on Friday evenings when his family was all together after a week of not being together.

"Now then," Lord Yasaka stated to his adopted daughter while they were standing in the back outdoor kitchen, "the first thing you do is look down and see whether the valve is open. Is it open?"

Kimiko looked, examining it. "Yes," she decided.

"Very good," Daizo praised. "Now, can you tell me which nob we turn first to get the grill going?"

"Ummmm…" instead of verbally answering, Kimiko turned the nob that had white, capital letters around it, and then she hit the starter button.

With a whoosh, the fire lit, and Kimiko turned the other nobs, getting the rest of the rows to start.

"Excellent job!"

Kimiko's smile was nervous, and her laugh hesitant. She thought she had covered it well, but she was a nine-year-old girl in the presence of a fifty-year-old Lord Yasaka that had raised three children to effectively control themselves, and he could easily pick out their true feelings.

"Kimiko," Daizo said sternly. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

The father of four had a brief flashback to when he was potty training his children, and that was the question he asked whenever he could smell a mess and he wanted to see if they had enough integrity to tell him the truth. But anyway.

Kimiko shifted, clearly nervous.

Daizo took a reflexive sniff of the air, muscle memory from years past, just to make sure. Nothing besides the grill. "Kimiko. I won't ask again."

"I…I guessed that was the right nob…I have trouble reading."

"Trouble reading?"

"The letters bounce around and it makes it hard to read them."

"Ah. Sounds like dyslexia."

"…what?"

Daizo placed a hand on his adoptive daughter's head. "Dyslexia is a condition in which one's mind is so great, that something so base as reading is so beneath it, that it is difficult to do."

"So…my mind is so awesome that it's too awesome to do something so easy as read?"

"Yes. Be proud."

"…I don't feel proud."

"It'll come in time, I promise. Now, grilling this beautiful slab of sirloin."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dinner was delicious, like it always was when the family prepared it together. When dinner was over, and the dishes were all washed and put away, Kimiko popped the question that had been on her mind for a while now.

"Where are all the secret passages?"

"What makes you think there are secret passages?" Uzu asked in a teasing tone.

"Because this house is huge, and huge houses always have secret passages!"

Uzu shared a look with her parents, and they both nodded.

"Alright, come on."

Kimiko cheered.

"Can we come?" the twins asked.

"Yeah, can they come?" Kimiko asked.

Daizo adopted a faux musing look. "I don't know…Uzu, do you think you can keep up with three little ones?"

"We're not little!" all three cried at once.

"I'm sure I'll be fine," Uzu said.

"Well then…have fun, children."

With that, the siblings all vanished down the hallway, leaving the Lord and Lady alone at the dining table. Daizo looked at his wife, and she looked at him.

"When is it going to stop?" Aiemi asked.

"When this cursed war is over, I'll stop. I swear it on my name."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Of course, Uzu knew where all the secret passages were in the house, and she did indeed show them all to Kimiko. She knew because she had to know. She was the heiress to this family, in danger at any given moment, so knowing how to get out of this house in any circumstance was necessary. Kaneda and Tetsuo knew them too, for the same reason that Uzu did, and now Kimiko was brought in on the network.

Partly because it was Friday evening and childhood fun was in order, mostly because Kimiko was a member of this family now, and she needed to know how to escape should the need ever arise.

Of course, no one noticed as Kimiko's ocean blue eyes, now bright and sparkling with life once more, were shifting minutely to a dark emerald.

In the brief instances, less than a full second of consciousness, Shin'en was drinking in everything around him, examining every detail with supernatural speed. To his disappointment, he was seeing nothing that indicated incriminating evidence. Only dust and cobwebs. Some of the passages led into broom closets and hidden alcoves built into the house, alcoves designed to be occupied by no more than two people for any more than a few hours.

Nothing of note anywhere.

Eventually, Kimiko did get tired, her nine-year-old body demanding rest, and so Uzu navigated the passages, dropping Kaneda and Tetsuo off at their room, before navigating through once more to drop Kimiko off at her own room, which surprised the girl that there was a secret door in her room, and then Uzu left for her own dwelling, but not before giving Kimiko a hug and a goodnight kiss.

That night, alone in the spacious bedroom, when Shin'en took control, he reflected on his memories, searching through all of them to see if there was anything he missed. In frustration, he saw nothing.

He needed to get out of here. He needed out of this place. Kimiko's feelings, her thoughts and her emotions, they were growing powerful, the line between him and her starting to blur. With each day passing, with each new memory Kimiko created with Aiemi, and Uzu, and Daizo, and the twins, she was growing in her individuality, becoming stronger.

Instead of simply popping out every night to investigate, it was requiring effort to dig himself out of Kimiko's subconscious, even if she was asleep.

Kimiko didn't want this experience to ever end. She wanted to stay with the Yasakas until her death. And slowly, but steadily, those sentiments were bleeding into Shin'en's own mind. It was getting hard for him to tell the difference between Persephone and Uzu.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **That wraps the second to last chapter of the Kimiko arc. Next chapter will be the end of it, and the chapter after that will be the psychological backlash that comes with separate personalities going through intense emotional trauma, and will develop Shin'en's relations with Y**_ _ **ū**_ _ **rei, if only because maternal instincts.**_

 _ **Sukina does have a heart, after all, as does Y**_ _ **ū**_ _ **waku and Bullock. Arashi's a bit of heartless bastard, though. The reason for that will be revealed next chapter.**_

 _ **Anyway, sorry for the slow updates, but my job requires massive physical labor during the evenings, and so I take a tap during the day and after I wake up it's eat, get dressed, go to work, work, and then come home past ten at night tired and sweaty and smelly.**_

 _ **Life is great.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	21. A Family Forgotten

_A Family Forgotten_

 _ **Alright, it's the last chapter of the Kimiko arc. If the lack of Reviews are anything to go by, you're all bored and want to move on.**_

 _ **Rejoice, for we're moving on after this one.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saturday came once again, marking the one-week anniversary of Kimiko's rescue off the street. Aiemi woke her up, bringing with her a glass of juice and a couple of pills, the antibiotics for the infection. She also brought the rash cream. The swelling of the skin was down, and the redness had all but vanished.

Kimiko's urine was also a much better color than what it had been, going from a disturbingly dark color, the signs of her bladder infection, to the normal yellowish. It sent the child over the moon to know that she was close to stopping having to put the icky cream on her, and take the nasty pills, and have someone watch her go to the bathroom and help bathe her.

She was nine, dang it!

She was a big girl and could take care of herself!

Aiemi was also glad, because where she did enjoy mothering Kimiko, and reexperiencing what it was like to take care of a small child, having to nurture them, look after them, and coddle them, Kimiko was also a growing child, and children, above all else, valued their independence. It was hard to be independent when you had someone making sure you ingested antibiotics and was hovering over you whenever you went to the bathroom to make sure you didn't start scratching.

It was a bittersweet feeling in Aiemi, knowing that Kimiko was close to leaving her intensive care, but was also close to leaving her intensive care. Of course, Kimiko was still going to be there, but she wouldn't be as close around as she had been.

At least, that was Aiemi's experience from raising three children already.

Anyway, it was Saturday, and come Monday, Kimiko would be going to school, much to the child's anxiety as she had never been in a school before and would be separated from all of her family, and as such, she needed uniforms, as the academy had a dress code that that would be followed, even by wealthy students. Hence, another trip to the Yasaka-owned mall.

All of Uzu's old uniforms had been outgrown and donated to clothing services.

The academy's uniform for girls was stereotypical of all academies, consisting of a pleated skirt, a button-down, a little bow, all under a blazer. Permissible footwear was limited to Mary Janes. However, for Kimiko's age group, nine and ten year olds, the uniform was a white button-down under a sleeveless dress. The bow wasn't required, but calf-high socks, colored white, were, as well as the Mary Janes.

Kimiko absolutely hated it, having grown up in the country on a rice farm, where her clothes consisted of tough material, usually denim overalls and a flannel shirt, and some boots, all perfect for getting dirty and nasty. This prissy schoolgirl monstrosity was restrictive, dainty, and couldn't handle a field of soft grass without getting ruined, and it smelled funny.

However, one hard look from Lord Yasaka reminded Kimiko of her place as his daughter, and her job, both as his daughter and as repayment for his generosity, was to do everything she could to uphold his public image, and so she sucked it up, and started trying on uniforms. It was all more for Aiemi's sake, allowing her another chance at watching her child play dress up, since Kimiko's clothing size was known.

As a reward for her good behavior, Daizo allowed his youngest child to pick out two things: where the family ate lunch together, and what new toy she wanted. Kimiko chose to eat at a bento restaurant. For a reason no one could explain, when she saw that shrimp and fish were being served in certain boxes, she started crying.

Aiemi took her to the restroom and let her have her cry, and after she had calmed down enough to speak, Aiemi had asked, "What happened, sweetheart?"

Sniffling, Kimiko answered, "T-They k-killed th-the poor fishies and shrimpies! I d-don't l-like it when f-fishies and sh-shrimpies are killed!"

Aiemi didn't know how to respond to that, finding it strange that Kimiko would care so much about fish and shrimp, and also finding it strange that where she cared so much about fish and shrimp, she didn't seem to care at all about the cows and pigs and birds that were also killed to make the bento boxes. Aiemi almost laughed aloud at the notion.

Her daughter, an animal rights activist that only cared for sea life.

A sea life activist, as it were.

Aiemi had to pull Kimiko to her chest so that the little girl didn't see the smile that tugged at the Lady's lips. "There, there," Aiemi soothed. "There are millions and millions more fishies and shrimpies in the oceans. The ones at the bento place are really happy to be served up like they are."

"R-Really?"

' _Oh, my God she's buying that?'_ Aiemi thought to herself. Even to her, it sounded like complete garbage, but her. Whatever worked in calming Kimiko down, right?

"Yeah. Those fish and those shrimp live to be cut up and eaten. It's their mission in life. It's how they get to go to the Pure World, the good place. If they didn't get to be cut up and eaten, they'd have to go to the Impure World, the bad place. You don't want them to go to the bad place, do you?"

Ah, nothing like bringing in religion to help get a child to understand morality and quell her qualms about killing her food.

"No…" Kimiko answered in a quiet voice.

"Then let's go eat us some fish and shrimp and make sure they get to go to the Pure World, ne?"

Kimiko shook her head. "I'm not eating any fishies or shrimpies."

"How about some steak or pork?"

"Steak!"

"That's my girl!" Aiemi beamed. "Let's go get us some steak, then."

The two returned to the food court, Kimiko being carried on her adoptive mother's hip. Upon arrival, they saw that food had been ordered and brought out for them, their family waiting for their return so that they could eat as a family. Aiemi set Kimiko down at her designated spot at the table, between her brothers and across from her sister, and set down next to her daughter. Daizo sat at the corner of the table, closest to the walk way.

Lunch was eaten with fervor, and not a word was said about Kimiko's sudden breakdown, until lunch was over, the trash disposed of, the table cleaned, and everyone was headed for the toy store, as Kimiko's second pick of the day, after lunch venue, was a new toy.

Lord Daizo pulled back, his wife falling in step.

"She's just a strange angel," Aiemi said lowly. "She saw that fish and shrimp were on the menu, and that's what made her cry. Not the steak, or the pork, or the various birds, but the seafood. She didn't care for the land and air animals, just the water ones. Like I said, a strange angel."

"Strange indeed," Daizo muttered.

Uzu silently concurred, having overheard the conversation due to her trained hearing. Part of being heiress was being taught how to maximize her senses, even without chakra. Uzu took two big steps and scooped Kimiko up in her arms, blowing a raspberry on the child's neck, making her squeal in surprise and joy.

"U-Uzu, stop it! What are you doing?"

"I'm just loving on the cutest baby sister in the whole wide world."

"I'm not a baby!"

Uzu's eyes gleamed. As it just so happened, a baby supply store was right next to them, and the teen stopped. "Are you sure? I think some of those clothes in there would fit you."

"No~," Kimiko whined.

Uzu brandished the girl at the twins. "What do you think, brothers? Is Kimiko a baby?"

Kaneda and Tetsuo put their heads together, crossing an arm over their chests to stroke the other's chin. "Hmmm~…yes!" they chirped in tandem.

Kimiko cast a look at her parents. _Plz hlp me._

Aiemi decided to take pity on the youngest…in a way. "Now, now you three. All of you know how fussy Kimiko gets when you treat her like this. Now give her to me so I can burp her. She just had a big meal, and I want that gas coming out of her mouth and not into her pants."

Kimiko let out a pitiful whine as Uzu handed her over to Aiemi with a snicker. When Kimiko was put on Aiemi's shoulder, the woman whispered, "Don't worry. It's their turn now."

Kimiko grinned devilishly.

Lord Daizo sighed at the antics of his family. He would allow this to go on for maybe a minute or two longer, but then he would end it. They were a noble family in public; while fun was allowed, they still had an image to uphold, and a level of dignity to maintain.

"Now, Uzu," Aiemi said, getting her daughter's attention. "I noticed you're almost out of your night diapers for your bedwetting."

The color drained from the teen's face. "W-What?"

A few people had stopped to eavesdrop, curious of this sudden happening in the middle of the mall.

"Did you think I wouldn't notice how the package is almost empty? You may be seventeen, but I am still your mother and it is my job to know when you need more diapers. I don't want your mattress ruined again like the last one a month ago. After we buy Kimiko what toy she wants, we'll be heading for the pharmacy, and when we get home, we'll take out your diaper pail. It's getting full."

Uzu was white as a sheet, yet her cheeks were rosy. There were people around snickering at what they overheard, and Uzu's own little brothers were getting a laugh at her expense. However, Aiemi was quick to cut her boys down to size.

"And you two!" Kaneda and Tetsuo stopped their laughing. "I found your dirty underwear in the hamper, the seats looking like you both had a field day with a couple of brown markers. It's one thing to have a messy accident, it's another to have a messy accident and then try to hide it from me. Clearly, there was a mishap somewhere in your potty training days, so we'll be buying some pull-ups and a new potty chart for the both of you, along with Aiemi's night diapers."

This time, there was laughter all around, the three oldest Yasaka children all very red. Aiemi smirked at their public humiliation. No one messed with her babies, not even her own children could mess with her children, even if they were adopted.

The crowd filtered out quickly, as they all had their own dates and deadlines and adventures to go about.

Aiemi closed one eye, grinning like a cat, her other eye sparkling. "And let that be a lesson in teasing your sister when she clearly doesn't find it as funny as all of you. If I find out it happens again, I may just go through with what I said. Come along, now, children. To the toy store!"

Kimiko pumped a fist. "Yeah!"

The Yasaka children looked to their father for support as their rug had been swept from under their feet, by their own mother no less. Lord Daizo just clasped his hands behind his back and whistled a merry tune as he followed his wife and youngest. When he past his biological children, he said, "You heard your mother."

With no other viable course of action, Uzu, Kaneda and Tetsuo followed, all of them effectively cowed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The toy store was full of toys.

All kinds of toys.

The place was so toy-oriented that they called themselves "Toys R Us."

Their mascot was an elephant named Charlie.

It was a weird name and no one cared. It sent the kids over the moon to get a letter in the mail from Charlie the Elephant wishing them a happy birthday, along with a complimentary hundred-ryō gift card.

Anyway, Kimiko's eyes turned into stars when she first entered Toys R Us, and she vanished from Aiemi's arms, leaving a smoke-shape of herself. Kaneda and Tetsuo bounded after her, big grins on their twelve-year-old faces as they raced after their sister. Daizo was messaging the bridge of his nose, lamenting how his children were supposed to be dignified and noble, not hooligans.

Uzu had eyes swimming with nostalgia as she looked around, memories of her own self darting from place to place, looking at everything she could. Her mother touched her arm, breaking her of her reverie.

"Go after your siblings and make they remain civilized."

"Yes, ma'am."

Uzu found her brothers and sister in the boys' section, with Kaneda and Tetsuo bombarding Kimiko with their favorite actions figures, and all the toy weapons said actions figures used, grabbing swords, laser pistols, laser swords, laser swords that turned into pistols, the list went on. Kimiko's eyes were wide as this extreme wealth of information was poured on her, her arms laden with merchandise that she didn't want, no that the boys noticed.

They were just ecstatic to have the chance to envelope their little sister into their hero-worship.

"Alright you two," Uzu cut in when she saw her brother going for a box set that was going to take the both of them to lift properly, "that's enough of that. Kimiko, come on. I'll show you where the girl toys are at."

A passing train of thought entered Uzu's head. _And in a few years, I'll show you where the really fun girl toys are at._

The boys both made 'blegh!' sounds at the thought of the girls' section of merchandise. Uzu told Kimiko to drop everything in her arms, and made Kaneda and Tetsuo put everything back on the shelves. With the boys occupied, Uzu took Kimiko to the aisles of pink and glamour.

The shelves were covered with boxes filled with plastic dolls, little play sets, dress-up sets with fairy and/or princess paraphernalia, play vanity sets, female action figures, and toys. Mostly wands and what-not, though there were even toy swords and guns. Kimiko was deeply unimpressed with the toys for the girls, and almost threw up when Uzu showed her all the play dresses and costumes.

Of course she was, though. She was a country girl who grew up on a rice farm, playing in the dirt, digging for bugs, and playing rough with the boys. All this girly-girl stuff was her polar opposite.

Still, it was Lord Daizo's word that Kimiko would get to pick out whatever toy she wanted from this store, and Lord Daizo was nothing if not a man of his word. So, an hour passed as they browsed the aisles, looking at more toys, looking at the Lego sets, at the puzzles, even at the video games. It got to the point where the joy was almost gone from the whole experience, and then Kimiko saw something that caused her eyes to light up once again.

A bin off to the side, a bin filled with stuffed animals. Sitting atop the small pile of stuffies…was a dolphin.

Once again, Kimiko proved just how much of a strange angel she was, because where she wanted nothing to do with any of the girly stuff elsewhere in the store, and she started crying over the discovery of seafood being served in bento boxes, she absolutely fell in love with a dolphin plushie.

The plushie was adorable, its underbelly white, its dorsal side light blue, almost the same shade as Kimiko's eyes, and the plushie's eyes, pieces of plastic sewn in, were a sparkling, happy black. The way the stitching was done about the facial area, one could make a case that the dolphin was smiling.

Kimiko decided that the dolphin was a he, and she named him Flounder.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lord Daizo paid for the dolphin, and the family departed the mall with all of Kimiko's new school uniforms, and Flounder.

In the carriage, the day's festivities took their toll on the children, and Kimiko decided a nap was in order. Lord Daizo and Lady Aiemi sat side by side on their bench, their chests swollen with pride and joy at what they were seeing. Uzu sat in the middle, her brothers on either side of her. Kimiko was sprawled across their laps, using Flounder as her pillow. Kaneda and Tetsuo's arms were securing their little sister, holding her across the back of her legs and across her shoulders, and Uzu was holding her brothers.

All four of them were sound asleep.

Aiemi had a few small tears of motherly love going down her face, and Daizo's own eyes were misty.

He couldn't have ever asked for a better family.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Yasakas arrived home in the late afternoon, and Kimiko's nap was enough to recharge her. She woke up wide-eyed and bushy tailed, her brothers just the same. Uzu was more lucid, her eyes cracking open, and then she wanted to go back to sleep for the rest of the night, but her parents wouldn't let her on account of if she did, she wouldn't go to sleep until early, early in the morning, and that would be bad for Sunday's festivities, which made Uzu groan as she remembered just what was happening tomorrow.

The kids were intentionally left in the dark, but their attention spans ran short and they disappeared somewhere in the network of secret passages that lined the estate. Uzu, needed to wake up and having nothing better to do, followed. Aiemi went to engage in her knitting hobby, and Lord Daizo…

Lord Daizo entered his secret room.

In the secret passages, Kimiko came to a sudden abrupt halt. Her brothers kept speeding down the way, heedless of their sister's sudden stop behind them. The girl's eyes turned emerald for a moment, the shadows cast by a nearby lamp crossing over her face. Oh, Shin'en felt that disturbance in the water vapor, and he could feel Daizo alone in a space that wasn't there before.

Airtight, like Arashi's room in the hideout.

"Kimiko," Uzu said from behind.

Emerald turned back to sparkling ocean blue. "Yeah?" she asked, turning around.

Uzu looked…strange. "You're strangling Flounder."

"Oh! I was remembering things, and…" Kimiko brought her plushie to her chest. "Sorry, Flounder."

Uzu tilted her head slightly. "Remembering what?"

Kimiko hesitated. "… _that_ …that night."

"Oh." And just like that, Uzu's suspicion evaporated. She hugged Kimiko, who started to sniffle, and then soon enough she was crying her eyes out as the painful memories of watching her mother and father's murder before her eyes played through her mind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimiko cried herself to sleep, even though she had woken up from her nap not even two hours ago. Uzu carried her through the passages to her room, and she dropped the sleeping girl—and her plushie—on her bed, tucking her in for the evening.

When Uzu left, Kimiko's eyes opened, emerald green and piercing.

Now it was just a waiting game.

And he waited. Shin'en waited and waited and waited, keeping tabs on everyone in the house. For hours, he tracked everyone. The clock ticked by, one hour, then two, then three, and then the clock struck ten-thirty. The twins were asleep, the skeleton crew that operated the estate at night were doing their sparse duties, Uzu was reading a book, winding herself down for the night, Aiemi was asleep, and Daizo, after so many hours in that secret room, finally left.

Shin'en wasn't sure what Daddy—er, what Daizo had been up to in there, besides smoking, a bathroom break, and extensive reading of papers. If the ninja's guess was correct, that room was where all the good stuff was at. But more waiting had to be done.

Over an hour later, one slow, agonizing hour, Daizo's body finally shut down next to his wife as entered sleep, and that's when Shin'en moved.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimiko woke up in the middle of the night, parched, throat dry. She did have a bathroom connected to her room, just like ever bedroom in this house did, bud she didn't want a glass of water. No, her little nine-year-old self determined that a glass of juice was the best choice of beverage, and unfortunately, her room had no glasses of juice.

The kitchen fridge did, though.

Kimiko slid out of her bed, still clad in her day clothes as Uzu hadn't changed her out of them when she put her down after her cry. Kimiko grabbed her dolphin plushie, Flounder, exited her room, and toddled quietly to the kitchen. It would've made more sense to take a secret passage, but those places were scary by yourself.

Not that the dark halls with the statues and samurai armor mannequins were any friendlier.

But that's why Kimiko brought Flounder, because Flounder was awesome, and he would keep her safe.

Indeed, Flounder the Dolphin did his job well, and Kimiko made it to the kitchen safe and sound. She hopped up onto a counter, opened a pantry door and grabbed a glass, and then she hopped down, barely making any noise through the whole process. Glass in one hand, Flounder tucked under the same arm, Kimiko pried open the refrigerator door, and light spilled across the kitchen area. Inside was the jug of the desired juice, and Kimiko grabbed it, set it and the glass down on the counter, and poured her drink.

She downed three full glasses before she decided she wasn't thirsty anymore, and she put the glass in the sink, grabbed the juice jug, and made for the still-open fridge door. As Kimiko was putting the juice back on the shelf where she got it, she saw something at the back of the fridge that caught her eye.

It was the thermostat.

She didn't know that, having never seen a thermostat in a fridge before, as the fridge in her old house had not been anywhere near as elaborate or complex as this technological monstrosity was. Because Kimiko didn't know what the thingy at the back of the fridge was, or what it did, but she was curious, and like all curious children that didn't know better, she went about trying to figure out what the thingy did by touching it.

What she didn't know was that Shin'en had been monitoring Daizo, and so he knew that there was something in the back of the fridge that contained a code, and that thing happened to be the thermostat. Kimiko's button pressing was the subconscious instructions implanted by Shin'en.

After Kimiko hit a certain string of the buttons, there was a very quiet beep, and she jumped back in surprise, dropping the juice. It hit the ground and busted open. The fridge door swung shut, making not a sound, and then the fridge itself was lifted from the ground along with the floor it was on, and the wall it was attached to. A staircase was revealed.

Swallowing, Kimiko obeyed her curiosity and descended. The fridge, floor, and wall came down without a sound, but lights lit up along the stairway's path. Swallowing again, clutching Flounder tight, Kimiko followed the stairs, only dropping maybe ten feet, before it evened out into flat floor that took a sharp turn to the left into a tight passage.

Kimiko followed it, followed it to where it took another left, went down a little bit, then took a right, and then one more left, and then one more right, before finally opening up into a room that was plain. Filing cabinets were along one wall, a white board was along another, the white board covered in marker, making out into some kind of list that Kimiko couldn't decipher, and along the third wall were book shelves, only a few books on each, and the fourth wall had a blank canvas on it. In the middle of the room was a big desk, one that was simple, and on it were papers, a projector that was aimed at the canvas, and knives.

Kimiko swallowed again, driven by curiosity.

She went to the table and looked at the topmost paper. With her dyslexia, it was difficult, but through a calm mind, perseverance, patience, and logical thinking, she deciphered the title of the page:

 _Antique Weapon Delivery Report_

Kimiko was going to try and read further, but a voice tore her from everything. At the voice, she was startled, but she was more than just startled. Her ocean blue eyes flipped to emerald green, Shin'en's self-preservation taking over everything. In the blink of an eye, he grabbed a dagger from the table and rushed, plunging the blade into the chest of the one that had surprised him.

It was instinct.

It was reaction.

It was nothing more than a firing of synapses.

It was the chest of Lord Daizo Yasaka.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimiko blinked, not sure what had just happened, but what she saw had her with her jaw open and tears brimming: her hand on a knife that was plunged into her daddy's chest. Blood was spilling from the wound, coating her hand.

She tried to speak, but a lump had formed in her throat, blocking her voice. She tried to overcome the lump, but it persisted.

Daizo coughed, blood spilling from the corners of his mouth. His eyes were swimming with so many emotions. Surprise, sadness, hurt, betrayal….It was the last one that finally gave Kimiko the push to speak.

"Da…Daddy…I…I…I-I…" but she still couldn't form words.

With a shaking arm, Daizo reached up and gently put a finger to her mouth. He was not fool. He had seen the way her eyes had changed color, and he felt the change in her. What she had done had not been by her hand, but someone else's. A split personality, a demon, or maybe even a very elaborate jutsu used for whatever purpose. But what he saw before him was his distraught daughter, his innocent, sweet, angel of a daughter that was absolutely devastated by what was happening.

Daizo was devastated too. He was awoken by a quiet alarm that alerted him to entry to this secret room, where he managed the legal acquisition and selling of antique weapons. After traversing the passage, her arrives to the confusing sight of his adoptive daughter struggling to overcome her dyslexia and read one of his papers.

Then he said her name, and it was easy to tell that he startled her…but then her eyes changed color, the air changed, and she moved with inhuman speed.

Daizo's eyes crinkled as his lips curled into a sad, bloody smile. He tried to speak, tried to say that he loved her, but all that came from his mouth was blood. He could see Kimiko was also trying to say something, but she was literally choking from the muscles in her throat tightening too much to allow air passage.

Daizo's hand moved from Kimiko's mouth to gently cup her cheek, and he gently brought her forward to kiss her forehead. He pushed her away far enough that she could see his eyes, so that she could see the pride in them, the happiness that came from their recent times together, and the lack of regret for bringing her into his home, even though this was the ultimate fate.

Kimiko was starting to lose control of herself, and unknown to both of them, a storm had gathered, the heavens ready to weep and rage.

As the edges of his vision began to brighten, the fabled light coming for him, Daizo summoned his will, and was able to say clearly three words. The three most common words you ever hear, but never fully feel the weight of until moments like these.

With one last look at his beloved daughter, Daizo Yasaka passed from this world a confused, heartbroken, sad, angry, and proud man.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kimiko's mouth formed a perfect "O," her eyes wide and face tear-stained. It…it just wasn't possible. She had just been adopted, just brought in by these very kind people, and then…and then-!

She saw the light fade from her daddy's eyes.

She saw him become still.

She felt his hand slip from her face.

Kimiko was about to scream. She was going to scream so loud the birds would take flight. She was going to scream and wake this house, and bring everyone to where she was so they could help her bring Daddy back to life.

But, with his death, a subprogram was activated. A subconscious little tick that kickstarted upon certain conditions. In this case, the condition was the killing of a member of the Yasaka family.

Kimiko's blue eyes dimmed, becoming dull and lifeless. Her body regained homeostasis, her eyes ceasing in their crying, her muscles becoming slack in her throat, allowing her to breathe easily again.

In a literal trance, Kimiko pulled the knife from Daizo's chest, still clutching onto her dolphin plushie with a death grip, and she started walking. She walked through the secret passage back to the kitchen. Her bare feet plopped through the spilled juice without a care. One of the night maids saw her and attempted to stop her with a gentle grip and a soft voice, but Kimiko's slashed the woman's throat with blinding speed, the cut so deep the maid was almost beheaded.

Kimiko walked dazedly through the halls until the found her brothers' room, and she opened it, the doors moving with nary a sound. She crept across their floor, quieter than a mouse, and got to their bed. She raised the knife and brought it down through Tetsuo's neck. He didn't stir or jerk, or even open his eyes. The blade was wide enough that it went right through his brainstem, his carotid artery, and generally almost severed his head.

Kimiko pulled the knife out and did the same to Kaneda.

The twins slept in a bed together.

There was enough of Kimiko's mind that was still active through the murderous trance that allowed her eyes to leak just a few tears in recognition of the fact that she had just killed both of her big brothers.

Still entranced, Kimiko left the twins' room, and continued through the halls. She happened across three other maids, and she killed them all without a blink of an eye. An uncountable amount of time passed, but she found herself before the master's chambers, and she opened the grand doors.

Inside, Aiemi stirred and awoke. She rose in bed. "Kimiko? What are you doing up this late?"

The woman's senses were dulled from sleep, and as such, she failed to realize her adopted daughter was holding a bloody knife, one that she raised and threw. Aiemi didn't scream when the blade was buried in her skull, as the aim was so precise that death was instant. Kimiko retrieved her knife and left for the room of the last remaining of her loved ones.

Uzu was asleep when Kimiko entered, and after Kimiko left, Uzu would never wake again.

Entranced still, the girl traversed the estate, listening to the rain batter the roof and the walls and the windows. The occasional flash of lightning provided brief instances of illumination in the dark halls. The thunder rattled the glass and the wood, and the wind whistled lowly. Kimiko noticed this all just barely, as if she were merely dreaming it all.

She walked down the central staircase of the estate, and went right out the front door into the weather.

There world suddenly turned bright, and Kimiko froze. The bright faded, and she opened her mouth to scream as the hypnosis vanished, and the full force of what she had just done came bearing down on her.

The world brightened again, suddenly, and all of Kimiko vanished. In the tiny moment of luminance, she changed, her body transforming into that of _him_. The dark returned, and _he_ began to head for the forest at a neutral pace.

The third time the world flashed white, the Yasaka house erupted in flames, and the black-clad form of Shin'en was silhouetted against the inferno, his white mask grinning its evil grin.

But his face held no smile.

Inside his head, he could hear Kimiko's laments.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **At the end of**_ **Xenophobic** _ **in**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, one of the scenes is Asteria being forced to break up with Annabeth on a stormy night. As Annabeth ran away in tears, the song "Too Late for Love" by Def Leppard plays in the background…technically speaking. I wrote in the lyrics. Anyway, the original idea for that scene actually comes from this scene which I had planned in my head a long, long time ago. I was originally going to save the song for this scene, but**_ **Xenophobic** _ **came first, and the song fit the atmosphere.**_

 _ **You can play it in your head and reread it if you feel like.**_

 _ **On an unrelated note, one that will completely derail from the effect of this chapter, on July 24, 2018—for those reading in the future—I was informed that my maternal grandmother contracted pancreatic cancer four months ago, unbeknownst to all of us, and it moved to her liver. The diagnosis was terminal. All it is now is a waiting game until she passes.**_

 _ **I feel it necessary to inform you of this because the next chapter of a fanfiction will not be the biggest thing on my mind for a while, so do not expect any updates anytime soon. That being said, I may just write furiously to take my mind off things.**_

 _ **Anyway, Fav, Follow, and if you do Review, Review the chapter. I don't want my inbox blown up with Reviews of "I'll pray for you," "I'm so sorry," "Take you time on the next chapter," etc.**_

 _ **This is the advance thank you for all your concerns and condolences.**_


	22. The Voice in His Head

_The Voice in His Head_

 _ **Ironically enough, the day after I posted the last chapter, which was Tuesday, July 24, Grandmom quietly stopped breathing at 5:12 P.M. Wednesday, July 25, 2018. I was at work in the truck, three minutes away from starting the Unload. Work ended a little after nine and when I got to my truck and checked my phone, there was a text from my dad: "She has passed."**_

 _ **It hasn't set in yet that my grandmother is dead, and that the last words I'll ever hear her speak to me were "Be the best person you can be. Be the best worker you can be. I love you and care for you."**_

 _ **I trust it'll set in next Thursday, on August 2, when I'm carrying her casket to the grave. The funeral will be in Van, Texas, if anyone's in the area and feels like dropping by, at the Fairway Garden of Memories Cemetery. I doubt it, though. We all have lives to attend to, and the world doesn't stop spinning for a death in the family of a stranger.**_

 _ **Anywho, y'all didn't come here to listen to me ramble about my woes, y'all came here to read about Shin'en's psychological trauma.**_

 _ **So off we go!**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Hours after Y_ _ū_ _rei planted Kimiko_

 _Back at the hideout_

No one was particularly happy with the situation, but a mission was a mission, and missions were business. And business was just business. Nothing to get too worked up over. Though that didn't stop Sukina from tapping Arashi on the shoulder, and when he turned around, slapping him so hard across the face his mask skittered off and a thin line of blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

To Arashi's credit, her neither grimaced, flinched, or reacted at all to being hit. His eyes hadn't even moved from holding Sukina's gaze. "Feel better?" he asked.

Bullock and Yūwaku stood off to the side, ready to intervene if things got messy. Yes, Arashi was the strongest member of the team in all categories, but one prick from any of Sukina's senbon would have him dead in seconds.

"He's a _boy_ ," Sukina hissed. "A child, a _baby_ , still. He's only fucking _ten_ , and _you_ just made him Remake himself into a nine-year-old girl, for no other reason than to get him familiar with the process! You know damn-fucking-well the Yasakas aren't weapons dealers, they're antique brokers with legal permits to conduct their business! HAVE YOU EVEN THOUGHT OF WHAT THIS WILL DO TO HIM MENTALLY!?" Sukina roared at the very top of her lungs.

"Yes," Arashi said. His voice was deep and heavy, and it was very clear that he had done _much_ thinking over what he had done, and what he was doing.

Sukina's flames were suddenly doused, but smoldering embers remained. "And you did it anyway…"

"Yes. When he…when he comes back, he'll be broken, hurting, and he'll need someone."

"You want me to play on his emotions."

"I want you to help him."

Arashi almost sounded like he was desperately begging, and that was when Sukina saw it in her leader's eyes: the deeply hidden pain at his decision, and what it was going to do.

This time, Sukina was completely cooled, now knowing that she was supposed to be Shin'en's shoulder to cry on. That was her psychosis, you know. At the very core of her being, Sukina wanted someone to desperately depend on her, so that she could take care of them always, and so that they would never, ever leave her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en indeed return, and when he walked in through the front door in full uniform and went straight for his room like he had just come back for a jog through the forest, everyone knew something was wrong.

Not that they didn't expect that.

The thunderstorm was a little strange though.

Still, no one got up from what they were doing to do anything with Shin'en. They all stayed silent and let him do his own thing. They had, after all, been watching Kimiko's every move for the past week, and all of Yūrei knew what had happened. It only made sense that Shin'en would move like he was in a daze.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en shut the door behind him, slowly, gently, quietly, and then his legs gave out from underneath him. His mask clattered to the ground next to him, and her curled into a ball, writhing, hands on his head. He could hear Kimiko screaming her head off, crying her eyes out in her grief. Shin'en could feel her emotions, too. He could feel the wetness of tears going down his cheeks, his stomach hurt, and his throat was tight.

He felt so terribly, terribly sad right now, just as sad as his fateful sixth birthday. The pain Kimiko felt now was equivalent to the pain he felt four years ago, and all the churning memories were bringing out emotions in him he had tried so very hard to keep down so they wouldn't distract him and burden him.

And Shin'en wanted it to stop. He wanted Kimiko to shut up, he wanted these physical feelings of crying hysterically to go away, and he wanted this emotional pain to end right now and never come back.

He reached into the pouch on his thigh and pulled out the same knife that Kimiko had used to slaughter her adoptive family, and he promptly did the only thing he could think of doing: Shin'en plunged the blade right through the middle of his hand.

In an instant, in the instant that cold bite overtook his senses, the blossoming, trickling warmth cascading down his arm, all of what the boy wanted was granted to him…and then steadily, it all began to come back. Distantly but getting louder and louder, like a parade coming from down the street, and Shin'en wanted nothing to do with that symphony.

He ripped the knife out of his palm and stabbed himself again, a little lower this time. The sounds quieted again, and in the pain of the cold bite, the warmth of the flowing blood, Shin'en found peace from Kimiko's laments yet again…and then it started coming back.

So he once again removed the knife, and once again did he stab his arm.

And so it continued.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About two hours after Shin'en quietly went to his room, Sukina finally acted. Leaving her room, she traversed the halls to the boy's door, knocked twice, and after a moment of silence, she gently opened the door in the suspicion he was sleeping.

Shin'en was not sleeping.

What Sukina saw was not the most disturbing thing she had ever seen, but it definitely made the list of the top twenty. Shin'en looked to have gotten stuck between himself and the other person he had created. He was wearing Kimiko's nightclothes, a hot pink t-shirt and a pair of matching shorts that were tight enough across the front to be stretched by his genitals. The left half of his face was normal, being naturally sun-kissed yet steadily going pale, with the dark emerald eye and drooping brow, while the right half of his face was peach, the eye ocean blue and the brow arching; simply put, it looked like this was a case of either Kimiko trying to take full control and failing, or Shin'en losing control and hanging on halfway.

Whatever the answer to that question was, Sukina didn't know, but she was more concerned with the fact that there was blood all over the carpet, blood staining the hot pink outfit, and lots of blood freely falling from Shin'en's left arm. All of which was most likely caused by the numerous senbon needles he had stabbed through his fingers, and the knife he was dragging through his palm down the middle of his arm, splitting through skin, muscle, arteries, and veins, spilling a small red river.

Shin'en looked up at her, and the blue eye leaked a few tears. "It doesn't hurt, if you're worrying about me hurting myself. The pain keeps her quiet. So I don't have to hear her cry."

"Mm-hm," Sukina nodded. "You're getting your clothes dirty."

Shin'en looked down at him himself. "It'll wash out."

"What about your floor?"

"I'll clean it later."

Sukina sat down next to him, putting an arm around his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Kimiko's not."

"Do you want to let Kimiko out, see if we can calm her down?"

Shin'en shook his head. "She'll kill you on accident."

"Come on," Sukina said with a sideways grin, "I know I'm not the strongest, but I can still kick some ass."

"It wouldn't be a fight. Demigod stuff."

"Ah, yes. _Demigod stuff_. The stuff without explanation. The stuff we're just supposed to roll with and not question, because if we question our heads will start to hurt and eventually explode."

"Something like that."

Shin'en brought the knife back out of his arm and stabbed through his palm, and then he began to cut through himself again. Sukina watched, hiding her surprise as he cut through her flesh. It wasn't the act that surprised her, it was the fact that the act had already been performed, and yet it was being performed again like it was the first time.

When Shin'en had dragged the blade back to his elbow joint, he looked at her. "The moisture in the air, and the water in my body…it heals me really fast. Physically, anyway. Demigod stuff."

Sukina hummed again. "What if I told you I knew a way to keep Kimiko from bothering you that didn't involve cutting yourself?"

He looked at her curiously but didn't verbally say anything.

Sukina reached into one of her pockets and produced a cigarette. "This is a special cigarette. It has stuff in it that'll help keep you calm. Here." She put it to his lips like a mother using a bottle or a pacifier, and like a child accepting said bottle or pacifier, Shin'en opened his mouth a tiny bit and accepted the cigarette. Sukina settled it a little past his lips but not to his teeth. She pulled out a lighter and lit the end up.

"Now inhale," Shin'en inhaled, "and exhale." Shin'en exhaled a cloud of smoke, and he instantly looked about ten times more lucid. "Now repeat as needed."

And that was how Shin'en smoked his first blunt.

Sukina pulled another out, and gently guided his head up. She put her blunt to her mouth and put the end to Shin'en's, lighting her own. And then Shin'en rested his head on her breast, and Sukina let her arm hang around his shoulders, and they just sat against his bed, smoking weed together as his blood quietly dripped onto the carpet.

Eventually, Shin'en simply fell asleep, and the ash from his cigarette all fell onto Sukina's lap, the nub of the blunt falling out too. The orangette smirked tiredly. One by one, she pulled the senbon free from Shin'en's fingers, and she couldn't help but marvel as she watched the skin close up on both sides. She wiped away the blood and saw not but unblemished dermis. Same for the length of his arm. Sukina pulled out the knife and set it aside. She finished her cigarette and put the nub out against her neck.

Then she pulled Shin'en into her lap, and he subconsciously curled into her.

The moment lasted for thirty seconds, before Sukina looked up to see Arashi standing in the doorway.

The man was stoic, face unreadable and eyes closed, a trick he used so you couldn't look into those windows and figure out what was on his mind. However, he only did that when he was in regret, was remorseful, and wasn't happy with what he was doing. It provided a small solace to Sukina, knowing that whatever Arashi was about to do or say brought him grief.

It was evidence of the man's remaining humanity.

"Wake him up. We have a mission. A man had hired us to investigate the kidnapping of his twelve-year-old daughter. He suspects a prostitution ring, and if that's the case, the Shin'en needs to see the Sex Education video." Arashi's voice was flat and lifeless.

"In the morning, after he's rested," Sukina said. Her voice was also flat and lifeless, but Arashi could feel the heat coming from her eyes.

The man nodded stiffly and walked away just as stiffly.

Sukina gently caressed Shin'en's little cheek. "Such a strong boy you are," she whispered. "So very, very strong…but so emotionally hurt. And it's all our fault. We did this to you, we tortured you into Kimiko, beating you for every tiny mistake you made, and then we planted subconscious commands that you were powerless to prevent…and it's going to happen again…and again…and again…and as many times as we need. For that I'm—" Sukina's voice broke, her eyes red and misty.

"For that I'm so sorry," she whispered.

She put her arms firmly around his little body and hugged him very tightly to her for the whole night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The mindscape.

It was a concept that was not disputed among the world, as many shinobi could enter their mindscape, often through meditation. The mindscape was a place of reflection and peace, a place where memories could be viewed, and experiences reexperienced. What was disputed, however, was just what the mindscape was.

Despite the word _mind_ being in front, philosophers argued that you did not enter your mind, as it were, but your soul, and some staunchly referred to the mindscape as their soulscape instead. Scientists argued that neither was true, and that you didn't enter your mind or your soul, but you instead entered your own personal pocket dimension that was a reflection of you and your will.

No theory could be proven as there was no way to test any hypothesis, as the mind and the soul were both spiritual concepts, and the pocket dimension idea had the glaring hole of your body remaining on the physical plane instead of vanishing into said pocket dimension. However, there were constants to the mindscape.

For one, it wasn't limited to shinobi. Thousands of civilians reported to be able to enter their mindscape, and while the true nature of the mindscape couldn't be proven, it could be proven whether you could truly access it, and the civilians in question all passed. Second, it wasn't limited by age. Children, adults, and elderly, shinobi and civilian alike, both reportedly had access to their mindscape. Thirdly, it wasn't limited by IQ. Invalids had passed the tests, geniuses had passed the test, people with average intelligence had passed the test, etc.

One would think that to access your mindscape you had to be of strong spiritual or mental fitness, but that wasn't the case. There were members of the Nara clan that couldn't access their mindscapes, where there were members of the Inuzuka clan—a clan more widely known for their tracking ability rather than their intelligence—that could do so.

So when it came down to it, there was no correlation between who could and who could not access their mindscape. It was just an ability some had, and some did not.

Shin'en had that ability. In fact, he was in his mindscape right now, and he, quite frankly, wanted out.

His mindscape took the form of a frozen wasteland in the middle of the ocean. Icebergs and islands floated aimlessly about in water that was red, the water itself littered with corpses that could just barely be seen under the waves. Kimiko sat on her knees in the middle of an island, sobbing hysterically.

Red-faced, eyes bloodshot, mucus coming from her nose, screams coming from her throat, tears pouring from her eyes, the works of a distraught child. Her emotions were reflected about the mindscape, with the red water churning, dark clouds above swirling, the cold wind biting, and the temperature dropping.

Standing apart from Kimiko was a shadowy mass with a hazy white spot in the middle of it. Instinctively, Shin'en knew that mass was Gatou, the incomplete form of the Torturer, anyway. Given enough sessions, he would have a more physical form, but Gatou wasn't supposed to be a person like Kimiko was. He was supposed to be a personality, a coping mechanism to deal with inflicting agony upon people and shoulder any kind of guilt or dark pleasure in the actions. Gatou wasn't going to get a backstory like Kimiko had; he was simply going to be a deranged lunatic.

Shin'en stood there, watching Kimiko sob, clutching onto Flounder the Dolphin Plushie like a lifeline, the bloody knife resting next to her. He should've gone over and hugged her, and provided comfort in her time of distress, but he didn't. Kimiko's sorrow dredged up his own sorrow, and his sorrow was something he wanted to keep buried, for those thoughts were poison and would slow him down, cloud his judgement, make him question what it was that he was doing.

He was a monster, he had accepted that long ago, and it had shown in his interaction with that Summer Rose woman in that snowy land that Susano'o had claimed was three thousand years into the future. But, even though he was a monster bent on revenge, that didn't mean that he was beyond emotional compromise, and Kimiko's meltdown was beginning to compromise him.

And so Shin'en invoked the supreme authority he had over his mind, the iron will he had spent years developing taking hold of himself. The ice around Kimiko shifted and crackled, releasing sounds like thunder. She whipped around to face him, pleading and begging in her eyes, but Shin'en steeled himself against the desperate eyes of the girl he had forced himself to become, and he encased her in an iceberg roughly the size of the Yasaka estate.

The ice was so thick that Kimiko was barely a faint silhouette in the center.

And just like that, it was over. The water stilled, the skies cleared, revealing a bright sun, the winds stopped, and it began to warm. With Kimiko sealed, all of her emotions and turmoil sealed with her, there was no cause for a disturbance in his mindscape.

Shin'en looked at the shadowy mass with the white mask in the center. The mass seemed to shrug, and then it sat down on the ice, content to be peaceful and patient for the next time it was called. After Kimiko, Shin'en didn't want to give Gatou anymore form or substance, but he supposed the point was mute. Gatou was the Torturer; his job was torturing people.

Nothing more, nothing less.

No need to create the same amount of flesh that Kimiko had to her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Shin'en woke, he was in control, focused in, calm in mind. He was back to normal, albeit a little out of it still, kind of like waking from a three-day coma. He was in Sukina's arms, still wearing Kimiko's clothes, the dried blood still caked into the fabric, and in the carpet, and the blood from his cutting had crusted about his arm.

He frowned at himself, disappointed that he had slipped so much as to resort to such a pathetic tactic to escape the emotional stress that Kimiko brought.

Oh well. What was done, was done. The only thing left was to move forward.

"Awake at last, I see," Sukina said gently.

Shin'en hummed, and then he stretched his back, releasing a series of pops. Then he yawned.

"Feel better?"

"Lots."

Sukina nodded. "Good. Hungry?"

"Starving."

"Excellent." She stood, and she stood still holding onto him. The position was bridal, but she arranged it to where he was on her hip. Shin'en didn't complain or protest. Sukina left his room, carrying him to her room.

"What are we doing?"

"We have another mission," Sukina informed him.

"Already?"

"The grind never stops."

"What's this mission about?"

"Missing girl. Probably prostitution."

"Oh."

"Yeah, except prostitution here in the Land of Water is a bit off the deep end. There's a special Sex Education video I have to show you so you're prepared for it."

"But I already know about sex," Persephone's little ten-year-old brother said.

For one heart-stopping moment, Sukina assumed that meant he had been raped already, but Shin'en continued, oblivious to the orangette's thought.

"I can feel water in people. Demigod stuff. I lived in an apartment complex for four years in the Cloud. I could feel people having sex."

"Well that's nice. But apartment sex in PG stuff. Things that go on here in the LoW are PG-13, R, and Unrated. You'll see what I'm talking about soon enough."

Sukina honestly felt really bad about this. Yeah, Shin'en was a proven Ghost, showing that he was a beast in battle and excellent at espionage, a cold killer and textbook at torturing, but the sex rings of the LoW…that was something ten-year-old boys weren't supposed to ever see.

They arrived at Sukina's room, and she sat in the chair at her desk, holding Shin'en in her lap. She went about booting up her laptop, and she pulled out a bucket.

"You being hungry means you don't have anything in you, but all the same…in case you need to throw up."

Shin'en frowned. "It can't be that bad."

"Oh, it's a lot worse."

Sukina clicked on a tab on the taskbar, and video pulled up. There was three seconds of waiting while the program prepared to stream, and when it did, it kicked off with a couple of naked girls no older than twelve all dolled up and made to look sexy.

" _What's your fetish? Your kink? You fantasy? Here in the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water, we've got everything you could ever dream of, and lots more…"_

A twelve-year-old trying to talk seductively and look sexy while doing it was very disturbing, Shin'en decided.

The other girl picked up where her partner stopped.

" _Keep watching, and we'll tell you all about everything you can find here. Whatever your pleasure, whether you know it or not, we have it, and we can give it to you. For a small price of course!"_ the girl winked. _"If hot little babes like us were cheap, everyone would have one!"_

And then the preteens began a furious kissing contest that the video's stream froze on, and the title sequence started. With punctuated _BAM!_ 's, words began popping up.

SEX

EDU

CAT

ION!

All of that in big, arching text across the top of the screen, and then a plaque was slammed on below the big text. The plaque read, in fancy gold letters, _For the freaks, the predators, the kinky, the sexually depraved, and the rich!_

It hurt Shin'en's brain to read that and make sense of it, but he managed.

"And away we go," Sukina muttered.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And that's how Y**_ _ **ū**_ _ **rei intentionally screwed Shin'en's head up, set him up for tragedy, and are going to do it again with almost every personality. That's also how Shin'en locked Kimiko up, and more or less locked up the memories that come with her, hence the whole 'forgotten family' thing.**_

 _ **In a high-water environment, Shin'en also heals quite quickly, hence why he was able to keep cutting his arm apart and die of blood loss. And remember: across the street for attention, down the road for results. And the results of Shin'en going down the road were getting Kimiko to shut up for a little bit.**_

 _ **Next chapter is basically going to be like going to a fetish convention…from Hell.**_

 _ **So strap in and hold on, because I am going to bombard you with things that'll turn your stomach. This story is rated MA for mature adults for a reason, and we're going ahead with the assumption that the audience is comprised of mature adults, though I know there's at least one little twelve-year-old lurking about, and to that turd I say:**_

 _ **Go away.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	23. Fetish Convention from Hell

_Fetish Convention from Hell_

 _ **I also just realized that when my children ask what happened to their great-grandmother, I get to tell them she died of cancer before I was twenty.**_

 _ **Moving on, this chapter is going to be a detailed list of every depraved sexual thing I've come across and can come up with. You may recognize elements from certain anime that you were told not to watch but watched anyway, and if you do, then good for you. Feel free to leave a Review about it.**_

 _ **I will also tolerate no bitching for this chapter. I know very well how depraved and sick I am, there is no need for you to inform me of this. Just know that none of you have seen just what Sally did to Percy in**_ **Son of Jashin** _ **.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The video picked up, and Shin'en paid rapt attention, if only to see if it was just as bad as Sukina kept saying it was.

" _Here in the Land of Water, you can find all kinds of different sex and porn, but you're not here from some boring guy on girl action! In this video, we'll be showing you everything from the kiddie normal stuff, to the really freaky stuff!"_ the naked preteen girl smiled.

Her partner continued, the video changing to show a naked man on his knees next to a naked woman with a fake penis strapped to her waist.

" _First up is role-reversal. If you're a male with a submission kink, we've got it! Whether you want to be humiliated and demeaned, forced to suck and spread those ass cheeks for a girl's big dildo, or just a woman in charge, the Land of Water is the right place for you!"_

The video showed a man whimpering on the ground, taking a tongue-lashing, then it showed that same man with the dildo practically down his throat, and then bent over letting the woman screw him, and then tied to a bed being ridden.

"Oh my God…" Shin'en muttered. He was still in the blood-stained pajamas of Kimiko, his arm still crusted in his blood, but his face was normal now.

The other girl picked up. _"And if you're a female with a domination kink, we've got you covered. Hundreds of men ready to do as you say, and they won't give you any lip about it!"_

Then the video panned over a line of muscular men, all of them seemingly ready to be dominated and humiliated, and then it froze. The two naked girls popped back up.

" _But wait, what if you're a guy and don't want to be dominated by a girl?"_ the left one asked.

" _Or what if you're a girl that doesn't want to dominate a guy?"_ said the right one.

Then in tandem, _"What if you're into something rougher, or something homo? Well, we've got you covered!"_

And then the left-right, left-right alternating dialogue began again.

" _If you're a guy that wants to be dominated by other guys, we've got it!"_

The video showed a man being demeaned and submissive to another man, sucking him off and letting himself be screwed like a bitch.

Shin'en slammed the pause button. "How is that okay!? He craps from there!"

Sukina put a finger to his lips. "Shh. They're happy. That's all that matters."

"That guy _poops_ from that hole! And the other guy is putting what he pees with inside of it! That's disgusting!"

Sukina put her finger back to his lips. "Common sense regarding anatomy and sanitation doesn't care about your unpopular-yet-logical homophobic opinion. Now be quiet and keep watching."

She hit the play button, and the video started.

" _If you're a guy that wants to dominate other guys, we've got it!"_

The video showed the same men, only the roles were switched, and the camera focused on the dom instead of the sub.

" _And don't worry if you're a girl that wants to dominate other girls, or be dominated by other girls, we've got you little lesbos covered!"_

And the video showed two women doing as described.

" _We've also got girls ready to submit to guys too, so don't you worry you macho men! We've got you covered!"_

The video then showed a man holding a girl from behind by her hair beating her ass with a riding crop.

" _Now, for those that don't want to do it with adults, there's no cause for panic. We've also got hundreds of kids just like us ready to fulfil your desires, whether that desire is to dominate them, or be dominated by them!"_

The video showed a rapid compilation of all the described scenarios from above, only one person was replaced by a child of varying age in each edit.

" _And if you just want to watch a couple of little kiddies go at it, we've got you covered!"_

And then Shin'en watched a boy no older than himself stick his fingers into the anus of a girl about his own age, and then Shin'en watched as that same girl, a strap-on around her waist, pounded into that same boy's behind.

"Oh my _God_ …" Shin'en muttered again.

Sukina nodded behind him.

The video continued, the two girls standing side by side again.

The left one started. _"Pedophilia is one of the most common fetishes in the Land of Water. After all, age is just a number, and we don't care, as long as you're having fun, we're having fun!"_

" _And speaking of fetishes…here wo go!"_

The video changed again, the two girls standing side by side, only they were in a classroom, dressed as professors, and on the chalkboard were diagrams of the penis and the vagina. Though it was clear neither of the preteens were going to be talking about anatomy.

The left one started again. _"A fetish is any kind of sexual act that turns you on. Anything can be a fetish, like the sound of pages in a book turning, or rocks, or the surface of aluminum cans, and even feet! There's also_ _no reason_ _to be ashamed of whatever your fetish is! It's a part of what makes you, you! And here in the Land of Water, it's all about you!"_

" _If your fetish is feet, we've thousands of experts ready to tease you with their feet, or tease your feet, and of course, we cater to your sexuality and body preferences. So if you're a gay guy, we've got men ready to help you out, and that same goes for any lesbos in the crowd today!"_

The video showed a compilation of various couples of various ages and genders doing things with their feet.

"What the fuck?" Shin'en muttered.

" _Another common fetish is age play, which is as limited as your imagination! Maybe you missed out on your childhood and you want to relive it, or maybe you never left your childhood but you have to adult a lot of the time, or maybe you just want another child of your own. Maybe you want a caring mommy to take care of you?"_

The video showed a POV shot of a woman in a nurse's costume, with a busty chest, holding a large diaper bag with abnormally large baby items poking out from it.

" _Or maybe a hunky daddy?"_

The video showed stayed the same, only the woman was suddenly a man in a man's nursing costume.

" _Or maybe you want a kid to take care of you?"_

The man was suddenly a child. For added comedic effect, the weight of the diaper bag made the child topple backwards.

" _The key to age play is just what age you want to be. If you're a baby just learning how to crawl, go for it!"_

" _If you're a baby that's walking around and learning all about the great big world, who says you can't be happy doing it?"_

" _Or if you want to be a toddler, learning their ABCs and 123s, do it!"_

" _Whatever age you decide you are, we here in the Land of Water guarantee your satisfaction. And whether you're a bedwetter, a potty trainer, or still in diapers, our extensive collection of disposables is sure to have whatever you like!"_

" _And of course, your sexuality is catered to, so whether you're a baby boy looking for a daddy-"_

" _-a baby boy looking for a mommy-"_

" _-a baby girl looking for a daddy-"_

" _-or a baby girl looking for a mommy-"_

" _-we've got you covered!"_ the girls cheered in tandem.

"What the absolute fuck?" Shin'en muttered.

" _And if you're not the little one, that's perfectly okay. If you're the mommy or the daddy looking for a little guy or girl, we've got you covered too!"_

The video then began another compilation, this one containing clips and screenshots of children, teens, and adults in onesies, diapers, training pants, and cribs, sucking from bottles, sucking on pacifiers, sucking on breasts, and sucking on dicks. All of it a mix and mash between males and females.

Shin'en grabbed the bucket and dry-heaved.

Sukina patted his head.

" _And if you're a little stinker, don't worry. One part of the age play fantasy is fully embracing whatever age you want to be, and depending on that age, you may or may not be potty trained, which is why all of our diapers and pull-ups are ultra-absorbent and come equipped with odor blockers and leak guards, perfect for any and all messes!"_

The video showed a couple of its products, terribly brown in the back and sagging mightily.

Shin'en dry-heaved again.

" _But maybe you wanted to be mommy's little girl, or daddy's little girl, but you're a male-"_

" _Or maybe you wanted to be mommy's little boy, or daddy's little boy, and you're a female-"_

" _-we've got you covered!"_ the girls announced in tandem.

The left girl said, _"Here in the sex rings of the Land of Water, we've got all kinds of feminine and masculine clothes for all you little guys and girls, even if your anatomy doesn't match who you are in your heart. So whatever your desired kink in the age play arena is, whether it's DDLG-"_

" _-Daddy-Dom/Little Girl-"_

" _-DDLB-"_

" _-Daddy-Dom/Little Boy-"_

" _-MDLG-"_

" _-Mommy-Dom/Little Girl-"_

" _-or MDLB-"_

" _-Mommy-Dom/Little Boy-"_

The girls grinned and said together: _"We've got you covered!"_

Each acronym was accompanied by a picture of the described kink.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Shin'en declared quietly.

"You will be," Sukina affirmed.

The video continued with the girl on the right starting off this time.

" _Speaking of using diapers, there are two kinds of fetishes that go hand-in-hand with that kinds of activity, and those fetishes are watersports and scat!"_

The left picked up. _"Watersports is all about pee. Drinking pee, peeing on someone, peeing in their mouth, peeing in their pussy, peeing in their ass, peeing their pants, sucking pee out of clothes, licking pee out of a toilet, or freezing pee and then eating it like a popsicle!"_

With each category listed above was a brief accompanying clip. A girl drinking amber fluid from a clear plastic cup, a guy holding his penis to pee on a girl's breasts, a guy holding his penis to pee in a girl's open mouth, a guy balls deep with amber fluid gushing out from the vagina around his penis, a guy balls deep in a girl's ass, her stomach steadily swelling, a girl standing stock still as streams of liquid began pouring from between her legs, rapidly trailing down her pants, another girl with damp underwear in her mouth, making loud slurping sounds, and finally, a girl holding her hair up as she lapped from a toilet, like a dog, that needed to be flushed.

At the end of the left girl's monologue, the right girl popped up on the screen, licking an amber popsicle.

" _Mmm, delicious!"_

Shin'en turned green. "What the _fuck_ is wrong with people?"

The right girl popped out of view, and the left girl continued.

" _Now, sense watersports is all about pee, scat is all about poop!"_

"Oh, fuck no."

Shin'en slid out of Sukina's lap, but she grabbed him and pulled him back. "Trust me. It's better to watch it now and get it over with, than to see it in the field and freeze up."

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to atomize whoever I see doing this in the field!" Shin'en yelled, his little ten-year-old voice high and almost squeaky to Sukina's ears.

The orangette just grabbed the bucket and held it in front of Shin'en. His stomach might have been empty, as shown by his previous dry-heaving and earlier admittance of hunger, but the bucket was still a comfort.

" _The two most common things to do in the scat category is to A) eat your poop or someone else's, and B) poop in your panties. Really, though, when it comes to describing just what the scat fetish is like, it's best to watch it for yourself!"_

Shin'en did not want to watch, and instead of just closing his eyes or covering them with his hands, which would have been the smart thing to do, the panic of the situation made him squirm and jostle, trying to break free of Sukina's grip, but she was a lot stronger than she looked, and some added chemicals in the weed cigarette he smoked earlier were still in his system, making his muscles just a little more relaxed.

As such, he bore witness to girls intentionally shitting their pants or panties, opening their mouths wide and taking a bite out of fecal matter, crapping on the floor and then rubbing it all over themselves, eating it, coating their fingers in it and then licking their fingers, or putting their fingers inside themselves. The montage ended with three naked women on their knees, their faces, chests, abdomens, and arms smeared and caked with poop.

Shin'en was dry-heaving so much it would've been a health concern to any professional doctor.

" _Of course,"_ the left girl stated, _"if girls aren't your pleasure, we've got you covered!"_

And then there was another montage of men doing all the above described things the women were doing.

" _And we've got homosexuals too!"_ said the right girl.

And then there was another montage of same-sex partners doing all of it.

" _But if humans aren't what turns you on, no worries there either. Here in the Land of Water, we're big purveyors of…"_

The video cut to an image of both of the girls kneeling next to a happily grinning dog that had no idea what was going on besides he was getting attention and affection.

Shin'en's stomach curled.

" _BESTIALITY!"_ the girls said with way too much enthusiasm.

" _That's right, folks! If you can't get off on some cute girls or some hot boys, we've got plenty of dogs, horses, pigs, cows, wolves, lions, tigers, and bears-"_

" _-oh my!-"_

" _-to satisfy your pleasures!"_

The video moved into a compilation of girls of various ages in various positions being fucked by various animals. The ones with the dogs were about the okayest on this long list of things that weren't okay, but the ones with the horses…

"I'll never be able to look at a horse the same way ever again…" Shin'en muttered, face white as paper.

The compilation was probably highly erotic to someone, but the demigod was just creeped out, and Sukina was bored to it by now. This was her fifth time watching it, after all.

The compilation showed girls on their hands and knees, taking it up the ass and the pussy from behind via a dog's dick, a pig's dick, a cow's dick, a wolf's, a lion's, a tiger's, a bear's, and even a horse's. Just how those women were able to fit those penises inside of their bodies, both their vaginas and anuses, Shin'en would never know, nor would he ever know how _anyone_ could be turned on by _any_ of this. The video got much worse when it showed the animals reaching climax, and Shin'en dry-heaved into the bucket once again, quite thankful his stomach was empty.

" _And if you don't like animal-on-girl action, we've got plenty of animal-on-boy action too!"_

And then there was another three-minute montage of dudes pleasuring animals with their mouths, and their assholes.

Sukina said quietly, "And you thought gay sex was nasty."

Shin'en barely nodded his head he was so horrified by the image of a man taking not just one, but _two_ horse dicks up his ass. The two massive lengths went inside the hole, and there was only so much leeway that could be given by the sphincter before it ruptured and ruptured it did. With a loud squelch and a spray of blood, that man died via horse cock.

Shin'en turned green. It was one thing to cut someone open with a sword and watch them fall apart and dirty the ground, it was quiet another to watch it happen when a couple of horses were mounting the same person, and both of them managed to fit…technically fit.

" _And for you bestial watersport and scat lovers, we've got you guys covered too!"_

And then Shin'en was subject to yet another montage of men and women willingly and gleefully ingesting the waste of animals like it was their favorite drink and meal. He saw a dog scrunched up, its fecal matter being collected on a plate and then seasoned with salt and pepper and handed to a grinning woman with a napkin around her neck. She grabbed a piece and chewed it up before swallowing. Shin'en also saw a cow pooping, equating the whole the sight to it throwing up from the wrong end. The brown and green torrent collected on the grass, where four people, two men and two women, were on their knees and eager to eat.

And eat they did.

" _But if bestial sex, scat, and watersports still doesn't get you going, we've got bestial pedophilia to help you get it up!"_

" _Or get you wet!"_

"Oh, fuck," Shin'en bemoaned.

There was blood in this video, with children taking adult animals, their small bodies not at all able to handle such large objects. They screamed and cried and begged and died. Blood loss, internal damage, stress, more reasons….Basically, if you were any smaller than five feet and weighed less than over a hundred pounds, you died from that experience.

After watching that one, Shin'en started to settle into the experience of depravity. He watched videos on the latex fetish, which was dumb to him as it was just people wearing latex body suits and other people getting off to the texture and smell. He saw a comprehensive list about all the intricacies of roleplay, how it could be something as simple as prisoner and prison guard, to something weird and off the handle, like the Nine-Tails and the Fourth Hokage.

" _Whatever your fantasy, we've the costume to match, and the actors ready to make it a reality!"_

" _The only limit is your imagination, and your money."_

Another branch of the broad roleplay category was the 'pet play' fetish, in which you either acted like some kind of pet, typically a dog or a cat, or you took care of someone acting like some kind of pet. There were buttplugs with animal tails attached to the end of them, called 'tail plugs,' and there were vibrating variations, extending variations, inflatable variations, and all kinds of variations. There were collars, costumes, gags, and all kinds of pet paraphernalia. There were masks, gags, leashes, exhibitionism, and, of course, there were scat, watersports, diaper, pedophilic, and homosexual variants as well.

Because, you know, they've got you covered in the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water.

With each video montage and compilation, Shin'en uttered one of three phrases: what the fuck, of my God, and I'm going to be sick.

After watching the first parts though, he was getting desensitized, and admittedly, bored. But that was the point, though. The whole point of this video was to be educated about the kink and fetish world, to get potential buyers interested, and to get black-ops and rescue teams knowledgeable about what they were going to see, because what they were going to see, without prior exposure, would make them sick, pause, hesitate, and any of that could cost the mission. So Shin'en getting bored of what he was watching was good.

But he also had ADHD and couldn't sit still very well, so whenever he got bored, he found ways to keep himself occupied.

In this instance, while in the middle of a montage about rape fetish, he was casually drumming on Sukina's desk, much to her amusement.

It was amusing to her because where the boy in her lap had been retching into a bucket at what he was seeing, now he was just drumming his fingers on the wood, trying to keep himself entertained enough to not wriggle and squirm and make a fuss. It was even funnier because he had been retching at something simple, like age play and scat, but was bored with something brutal, like little girls and boys literally being raped by grown men and grown women with strap-ons and animals.

Never mind the fact that Shin'en had almost fallen asleep during the necrophilia section of the video, which also involved dead animals, kids, babies, dead guys being fucked by live guys, dead guys being fucked by live girls, dead girls and live guys, dead girls and live girls, and everything in between and beyond.

Sukina had smacked Shin'en on the head to wake him back up.

He almost fell back asleep, but then the video went nuts, with sirens, blaring lights, loud sounds, streamers, confetti, and fog machines.

" _It's~ trap/tranny/shemale/crossdresser time!"_ the girls shouted in synch.

Shin'en's eyes popped wide open, the sclera bloodshot, his pupils like pinheads. He was awake now, and he wasn't happy about it. He had seen it all, dammit. He wanted a nap, dammit!

He barely paid anymore attention to this section of the video than he had the others since the bestiality portion. He got the gist, though. Bombshell women, with awesome chests, wonderful figures, and amazing faces, but they had penises dangling from between their legs. There were a lot of them that were just men using breast forms or padded bras to create the shape of a woman's chest, makeup to feminize their faces, and corsets and other tight clothing to falsify their figures. Of course, that was to say nothing about the younger ones, the ones that looked like preteen girls, but they actually had dicks too.

There were videos of the traps/trannies/shemales/crossdressers being dominated by men, women with strap-ons, other traps/trannies/shemales/crossdressers, animals, and children using their fists, and there were videos of the reverse, with the 'chicks with dicks' being the dominates. It made Shin'en's toes curl slightly to watch a heavy, hairy man bent over the bed, his hairy ass getting reemed by the penis of a man with the figure and face of a woman.

And of course, the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water wouldn't be complete without age play, pet play, scat, watersports, bestiality, pedophilia, necrophilia, latex, feet, and furry variations of the traps/trannies/shemales/crossdressers.

Because they've got you covered.

After that wonderful montage of disgusting freaks, the video went dark and serious, with the girls' voices becoming disembodied.

" _And now for the most popular, the most sought-after genre of porn in all the land, the granddaddy of all kinks and fetishes…"_

A grand stage appeared, hidden in fog machines.

" _B…D…S…M!"_

Each letter was punctuated by a light flicking on, highlighting an individual wearing leather, armed with a disciplinary tool. From left to right was a woman with a riding crop, a man with a whip, a shemale with a paddle, and a child with a belt, all of them decked out in black ensembles with masks over their eyes.

" _The ultimate in power fantasies, bondage comes in an array of different techniques, granting one absolute dominance over any individual, whatever the preference. We have stockades, ropes, belts, straightjackets, sensory depravation equipment, and much more!"_

" _Hundred are at your beck and call for whatever you can think of, whether you want a frisky maid, a timid little girl, a hot twink, a hunky man-servant, a submissive boy, or if you're the submissive, we have plenty around ready to dominate you!"_ the girl pointed with a wink.

" _But if ropes and ballgags are too vanilla for your tastes, we've got plenty to spice it up. Our extensive collections of knives and guns are sure to please any that are into knife play and gun play, whether it's the bite of the blade or the thrill of the bullet, we've got you covered!"_

And then Shin'en got the supreme honor of watching partners of all genders taking knives to each other, doing all kinds of things from simply running the blade up and down the skin, making the bottom squirm and writhe due to the fear of being cut, and full on mutilation, stabbing, slicing, cutting, and even killing.

At the part where that one girl, no older than eight, got her throat sliced open by one over-enthused woman, the video paused, and the right girl popped up.

" _Warning: you break it, you buy it, so unless you have the cash to pay extra for body disposal, don't be too rough with the merchandise."_

The right girl popped back down out of sight, and the video resumed, this time switching over to gun play, which resulted in a lot of people getting shot because they couldn't count bullets. Shin'en hardly flinched when he watched as the brains of children and adults alike were blown all across the wall, though it was interesting just how much power was in a bullet if it could hit you.

Just goes to show that shinobi were freaks of nature to be able to dodge such fast projectiles and shrug them off if they were hit.

There was more stuff about the BDSM genre, how it was basically the genre from which all other genres of roleplay were derived, etc. More on bondage techniques, what ties were the most popular, how to do them, which whipping instruments brought which effects and pain, more on the dominance/submission stuff, which harkened back to role reversal at the beginning of the video, and the video section ended with sadomasochism, which Shin'en found to just be weird.

How could it be that you enjoyed hurting others, but also enjoyed being hurt yourself? It didn't make sense to him, just what kind of power dynamic that was supposed to be.

And then the video moved on to its final portion, the second most popular genre in the Land of Water: torture porn.

Shin'en frowned throughout the entire ordeal, wondering how Gatou's torture methods could count as erotic material, or how torture and torture porn were any different from the other. Anyway, there were videos of people taking a saw to some pour individual's body, cutting off limbs, fingers, ripping through skin, flaying muscles, removing noses, lips, and tongues—and that was just with a saw.

Never mind the knives, scalpels, swords, needles, whips, electric clamps, wires, and heated metal objects.

If anything, Shin'en feel the growing individuality of Gatou as the Torturer recorded these things for future use.

The video closed, and the two naked preteen girls were strung up to a couple of posts, their bodies bound by wires tight enough to draw blood in some places. They looked different, their happiness and excitement gone. Now they were scared, terror and panic and…betrayal…in their eyes.

" _H-Hey! You said…you said you'd let us go back to our families after we shot the video for you!"_

" _And you will,"_ a familiar voice said, sickly sweet. It was the voice of Mari Kariko, the woman Gatou had tortured. _"You will be going back to your families in pieces."_

Both of the girls began to beg and plead for their lives, but lasted for an exact count of five seconds, before the wires around them went lethally taught, and the girls were sliced into uneven pieces, their bodies spilling on the ground in sloppy, bloody piles. The video ended.

Shin'en frowned. "Excuse me while I go bleach my eyeballs."

Sukina held him tight across his waist. "Unfortunately, that was only the normal stuff. There's still a lot of shit out there."

"I'll try to contain my joy."

"Yep, and while you're containing your joy, you'll also be washing up, because you smell like a corpse."

"Probably has something to do with the blood on me."

"Correct. Now toddle on, Little Ghost; we have a mission into the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water."

"Who have us covered."

Sukina nodded. "Who have us covered."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Oh, that was just what I wanted in this chapter; I could've put more in, but I was getting bored if you couldn't tell, and I still need some stuff up my sleeve for later chapters.**_

 _ **Anyway, next chapter is first-hand stuff about the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water…who've got you covered.**_


	24. They Start with the Dogs

_They Start with the Dogs_

 _ **Hm, just noticed we went past 100k in words, and we're midway to 500 Reviews. Great job everyone! Now, if the individuals who were frothing at the mouth to get a**_ **Backup Plan** _ **sequel could Follow and Fav like they did**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, we'd be solid in all categories.**_

 _ **I also skimmed through my Favorites tab the other day, and I completely forgot what some of those stories were. So, my advice is to go through your own Favorites, you might find something interesting.**_

 _ **Dislcaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto and PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en was headed for Sukina's bathroom because it was the closest, but then he remembered that there was no running water in the whole of the hideout, meaning that when one needed to bathe or needed to relieve themselves, they'd have to go elsewhere to do so.

Yūwaku had once joked that if he needed to take a dump, he'd have to find a tree to go behind, but she hadn't said anything in regards to a shower. Still, it wasn't hard to figure out; Shin'en could sense a waterfall not even five hundred feet away.

So he made an abrupt stop, spun on the ball of his foot, and exited Sukina's room. He didn't miss the snicker from the orangette, and he turned around and stuck his tongue out at her, something she reciprocated.

Shin'en put his tongue back in his mouth and asked, "Do you have another cigarette?"

Sukina threw him an entire pack. "Knock yourself out, kiddo. Here's a lighter, too." She threw him a lighter, which he caught with ease.

Shin'en inspected the two things, then nodded in thanks. He left the doorway and quietly traversed the halls till he was at the front door. He found it curious how the other three Ghosts weren't present, but he surmised that they were out gathering intel for the coming mission.

At the front door of the hideout, Shin'en stopped. Sukina soon came up behind him.

"I know you know where the waterfall is, and I know there's not a thing in a thousand-mile radius that scares you, so why are you hesitating to go wash up?"

"…the last time I left my home to go to a body of water, I came back to find everyone dead."

"Oh. Well, we're not going to die while you're bathing."

Shin'en rounded on her. "You don't know that."

"Sure I do," Sukina shrugged. "There are dozens of security measures, dozens of detection Seals, and I can hold my own in a fight. Have a little faith. You're a demigod, you should know all about having faith."

"Faith is a belief based on an absence of data. There isn't any absence of data when it comes to gods. They're real, and they're a bunch of dicks who either enjoy sitting on their asses and watching us like we're a sitcom, or getting involved themselves to change the story how they see fit."

"Well then, I guess you're going to need to have faith that the story involves us not dying during the time you're taking a bath."

Shin'en glowered at her, and all she did was smirk.

"I think it's really cute how you're more worried about me and the other Ghosts than you are about the fact that you're wearing a bright pink set of little girl's pajamas."

"Sukina!"

It wasn't a shout of embarrassment, but one of abject frustration.

The orangette sobered up and got down on her knee. She gently put a hand around Shin'en's head and pulled him forward to where their foreheads were touching. With eyes of warmth and tenderness, she spoke in a soft, soothing voice:

"Stop being a little bitch and get your ass into the fucking shower before I shove a senbon up your dick hole."

Shin'en glared at her with half-lidded eyes. "When I get back and you're dead, I'll resurrect you, kill you, resurrect you again, shove a sword up your asshole, and then heal you."

Sukina patted his head. "Good boy. Now shoo. You really do smell."

Shin'en stuck his tongue out at her one more time, before he left to go bathe for the first time since he got back from the Yasaka mission.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Well, no one was dead when Shin'en got back from his trip to the waterfall. In addition to cleaning himself, using the water to wash away all the dirt, grime, and bacteria on his person, he also did the same to the pajamas. Truthfully, he didn't know why, nor did he really have a reason for putting them back on, but he did.

He didn't feel like he was dazed, and just going through the motions; his head did feel clear, and that was where the supposed problem arose. He was a boy wearing a girl's set of bright pink pajamas, and didn't feel anything about it, even when the front of the shorts were tight enough—but not so tight as to prevent circulation—to outline his genitals.

It just felt like clothes to him.

Maybe it was the supreme sense of calm brought about by the cigarettes?

Anyway, Shin'en returned the hideout, clean as a whistle, and found all four members of Yūrei waiting for him in the foyer. In uniform.

"Get dressed," Arashi said crisply. "We're leaving in ten minutes."

"Already? That was fast."

"While you were being educated, the three of us were out gathering information. We have a location we suspect is where the girl is at, and we're heading there now. If you quit keeping us, we can be there by sundown today."

It was afternoon when the education video ended.

Shin'en nodded and vanished. Then he reappeared in full regalia, in his black pants and boots, black gloves and long-sleeve black shirt, under the black bubble vest. The grinning white mask hid his face.

Arashi nodded and left, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist following closely behind.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What's the plan?" Shin'en asked, jumping to be next to his leader.

"You should've asked before we left."

"You should've told me before we left instead of being in such a hurry. Sorry I was trying to accommodate your need for a hasty departure. I won't do it again."

"Good. See to it that you don't."

Shin'en glowered at Arashi, and he was certain the man was smirking under his mask.

"The plan?" the demigod asked.

Arashi made a Horse Seal, and an image appeared in the corner of Shin'en's mask's HUD. A teen girl, brown hair pulled into two low ponytails, glasses, and a headband. Her skin was fair and she looked mischievous, like someone out for a reckless, good time.

"This is Maya Katusragi. She went missing 72 hours ago, and her father has paid our fee in full advance. The sole objective of the mission is to find her and bring her back alive. After our investigation, we suspect that she was kidnapped by operatives of the Yoshiro Underground Nightclub, a branch of the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water."

"Who've got you covered."

Arashi nodded. "Who've got you covered."

"Motive?"

"Leverage, extortion, blackmail, she looked cute…motive wasn't clear. Motive doesn't matter. We're not law enforcement looking to put someone in jail—we're assassins for hire looking for a missing girl so we can return her to her father because he paid us to do so."

"Are we going to bust into this nightclub with swords drawn to slaughter anyone in our way until we find Maya, or are we going to slip in quietly and sneak around?"

"Neither. You and Sukina are going to infiltrate under false pretenses—those pretenses being you're her disobedient slave and she's showing you a plethora of potential punishments that she could use if you don't behave. While you're being shown around the nightclub, you'll be on the lookout for Maya."

"When we find her?"

"You'll finish the tour, leave, regroup, and we'll make further plans."

"If we're compromised or something else happens? What's the backup plan?"

"No survivors."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Yoshiro Underground Nightclub, or the "YUN" as it was called in the underground, pun intended, was a legitimate nightclub in the city of Guro. It was more or less a red-light city, fraught with clubs, bars, casinos, and cathouses. People here were neither wealthy nor poor, but made enough money to live relatively comfortable lives, and they all made conscious efforts to ignore the underbelly, while simultaneously enjoying its fruits in the dead of the night.

Husbands cheated on their wives, and those same wives cheated on their husbands. Bastard children were born on a daily basis, and some were put in sacks and drowned like puppies, some were raised by their mothers alongside their numerous halfsiblings, some were just tossed out, and some were taken to the many orphanages that dotted the city.

The less said of these orphanages, the better.

To get into a place like the YUN, the _real_ YUN you had to know certain phrases, or be in possession of secret currencies. While Yūrei did have such currencies, they were also in possession of such phrases, and so Sukina approached the VIP entrance where very burly men in samurai armor stood guard, tugging Shin'en along via a leash.

They were not uniform, suffice to say.

Sukina was wearing a fancy dress, very expensive, taken from an unwilling donor whose corpse was being cut up and neatly packaged by Bullock, and Shin'en…well, he silently seething. In order to pull this infiltration off, he had been dressed in a pastel pink skirt, pastel pink stockings, slippers of the same hue, and a pink hoodie. His hair, while not long, was long enough to where it could be pulled into pigtails that looked really stupid, and in his mouth, to his very quiet fury, was a pacifier that was attached to a belt that went around his head and was buckled.

He had seen this contraption in the education video and knew it to be called a 'paci-gag.'

Yeah, he wanted to gag alright.

He was supposed to be a disobedient slave being punished by his master, the reason for the retarded look, but he strongly felt this was overkill, and more than a little excessive, and retarded, and stupid, and he wanted to just kill everyone within a ten-mile radius. Sukina had attempted to add something else to the 'punished slave' regalia, but Shin'en put his foot down…and cracked it.

"I am not. Wearing. A diaper."

The four Ghosts had a silent, serious debate amongst themselves, weighing the pros and cons of trying to force him into said diaper, which, to anyone else, would be cause for a trip to the psychologists, but these were also the same people that had ruthlessly beat a nine-year-old girl until she was an entirely new person, so…

Shin'en did not have to wear a diaper, which was a small favor compared to everything else he was wearing.

Anyway, Sukina approached the door, tugging Shin'en along via a leash. When she stood before the two samurai, their masks hiding their expressions, she said, "Mr. Yun Sho is waiting for me inside. I have a date with her."

The two samurai nodded and moved the velvet rope. Sukina and Shin'en were lead inside, and they were both assaulted with the sounds of techno music, dark ambience, flashing multi-colored lights, alcohol, sweat, drugs, and hormones. It was worse for Shin'en, as his senses were even sharper than Sukina's, and he could sense the water in the air, meaning he knew a lot more than what Sukina did.

 _There are children chained…being doused in acid,_ he said in Pulse Code.

 _There are always children being chained and doused in acid. Focus._

 _Gotcha._

A man in a well-maintained kimono approached the two Ghosts, smiling. He offered his hand, which Sukina accepted. After the handshake, he turned around and started off without looking back to see if they were following, which they were. There weren't any words spoken due to the blaring music, but once they went down the hall where the bathrooms were at—a lengthy hallway that went deep enough to go out of sight—the man hit a panel in the tile wall, and a doorway appeared.

He went in, followed by Sukina and Shin'en, and the doorway was sealed when the wall came back in place. Immediately it went silent as the noise of the rave was totally blocked out.

"Good evening, ma'am," the man greeted formally. "My name is Mr. Hebi. Now, what is the nature of this visit?"

"A tour. My slave-boy has taken advantage of my generous nature, and he needs to learn how fortunate he is that I treat him as good as I do."

"I see," Mr. Hebi leered at Shin'en. "Will this tour be strictly visual, or will you allow a hands-on session?"

"Strictly visual."

"Very well. Payment, please."

Sukina produced a stack of ryō notes, a stack worth a hundred thousand. Mr. Hebi accepted the stack, counted the notes, took a few out and held them to the light, then put them back in with a nod. "Your money is good. Please, follow me, ma'am."

And so Mr. Hebi lead Sukina and Shin'en down the pristine white hallway, then he turned the corner. The hallway opened into a wide corridor lined with cells, cells occupied by girls no younger than thirteen, no older than eighteen.

Mr. Hebi began the guided tour. "Here at the YUN, our feistier ones need to be broken, unless a feisty one is specifically requested by a customer. To break them of their feistiness, we have them raped by dogs."

In all the cells in this corridor, every girl was indeed being raped by a dog. They were tied down, their arms and legs spread by steel bars, completely helpless as either their anus or vagina was being filled by a canine's penis. There were groups of men in the cells, most of them with cameras to capture the angles of the events, and a few with stun sticks.

"We keep them on the dogs for as long as it takes to shatter their wills. Usually it takes only a few hours, a day at the most, as we have a new dog in every hour, and we keep the girls starved and awake until they can't fight back anymore. However, we do encounter some particularly strong-willed girls, like this fine specimen."

Mr. Hebi indicated the last cell of the corridor, and Sukina and Shin'en looked to see Maya Katsuragi, naked, a ball gag keeping her jaws spread, restraints keeping her spread-eagle five feet off the ground. There was a puddle of waste under her, and he stomach was swollen, and Shin'en knew it was from excess water—an enema, but her anus was plugged, and judging by the way the cells were stretched about her colon, the plug was a knotting dildo, a dildo fashioned to mimic a dog's knot. Clamps were on her nipples and her clitoris, biting into the sensitive nubs of flesh, and a wire was in her vagina, all of it no doubt sending electrical shocks into her body through her erogenous zones.

In summary, they were stretching her mouth and her ass, keeping her shit inside her via a knotting dildo, and were torturing her with electricity, all while making her smell her own waste.

Well, that was mission accomplished. Maya was here, Shin'en and Sukina knew where she was, what was happening to her, and now the only thing left was to finish this tour, regroup, and then make a plan.

"Now then, ma'am," Mr. Hebi said—Shin'en suddenly felt a swarm of bodies gathering along secret passages in the walls. "Now that I have shown you the whereabouts of Ms. Maya here, will you wish to continue the tour? Or can I just give the order to kill the both of you…Yūrei?"

Sukina and Shin'en shared a look.

"Wondering how I knew?" Mr. Hebi snapped his fingers, and dozens poured into the wide corridor. "Mr. Katsuragi has grown irritated with you shinobi ruining his business, so he gave us his daughter to do with as we please, and then hired you so the trap could be set. It is a shame it's only the two of you, but we'll have the other two in due time. Now, kindly die."

Shin'en blew hard, and the buckle at the back of his head snapped. The paci gag shot forward with all the speed and force of a bullet, and completely decimated Mr. Hebi's head, destroying the skull as if it were hit with buckshot.

The Ghosts whipped around, throwing their clothes off to reveal their black uniforms. Sukina had her senbon out, and in a puff of smoke, Shin'en had his Thunder Swords. Then they went to work. The samurai made the tactical mistake of crowding a small area, limiting their movement capability, and so they were mowed down with almost no effort.

Sukina stabbed her poison-coated senbon into the chinks of the samurai's armor, and then she would throw one into another, making them stick together, or she would stab a senbon into a limb, and then redirect that limb into someone's body. It was surgical and precise, a combat style perfected from years of practice.

Shin'en was just swinging his swords left and right, the oscillations born of the lightning-imbued blades cleaving through metal and bone and muscle like it was all made of melting butter.

In ten seconds flat, Yūrei had carved through the entire battalion, and the once-pristine white corridor was now painted a garish red. Alarms suddenly went off, but through the feed of their masks, Sukina and Shin'en were able to converse without issue.

"Well, there goes Plan A," Sukina said.

"So, does that happen often, being duped like that?"

"Not often, but it happens."

"Okay. Are we going to kill Mr. Katsuragi after we're done here?"

"Of course."

"What do we do now, then?"

"Come on now, Shin'en. You know what we do now."

"Maya included?"

"Our mission contract is now null and void. Maya too."

And that was the story of how Maya Katsuragi was sold into prostitution by her own father and was beheaded by a ten-year-old boy, all for the sake of a plan whose endgame was the death of highly skilled assassins, a plan that ended in abject fury.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sukina and Shin'en tore through the YUN facility. It wasn't a terribly big place, only three floors deep and only as big as the club up top. There wasn't anything of true note of the YUN, just the commonplace bestiality, some bondage equipment, some whipping posts, a few adult nurseries for the age players, and other prostitution paraphernalia. The two Ghosts killed the dogs, the staff, the girls, the boys, and the perverted patrons.

It was during this time that Shin'en was taught to loot the corpses whenever possible, and he recovered jewelry, watches, wallets, and he Sealed away numerous corpses to be processed and sold away in jars. The real fun of the mission didn't come until Sukina and Shin'en left the YUN, met up with the others, explained the situation, and then left for the Katsuragi mansion in the rich district of Guro.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Infiltrating the mansion was routine, even with all its technologies, as the uniforms of Yūrei truly did make them immune to the sensors and suppressors that gave civilians such strong senses of security. Killing everyone inside, including Mr. Katsuragi had been a cakewalk. The man had been asleep with his wife, and Yūrei cut both of their heads off and left a message in blood across the wall.

They also killed the other two Katsuragi children, a little boy of six and a little girl of eight, and they also killed the family dogs, a male and his mate, and the month-old litter of puppies. Yūrei also slaughtered the horses in the stable, the sleeping birds in the trees on premises, and even the koi fish in the backyard pond…and also the guppies in the fishbowl inside the house.

Yūrei looted the place, and the corpses, Sealing away anything even remotely valuable. They did leave the bodies this time, however, as where the organs, skin, bones, and muscle could very well be processed and sold, this was the night for leaving a message, and that message was to not fuck them over when you hired them.

The entire process took less than two hours, and it was the dead of night when they were about to leave, but on the last sweep of the house, Bullock ran across a safe. Yūrei gathered around him.

"I take there's something more to this safe than a combination lock, seeing as you haven't just ripped the door off," Shin'en observed.

"Mm-hm," Bullock said. "This is a rare safe, super expensive, super durable, and super hard to get into. Eight-digit combination lock that you can't guess at, for any wrong combination will make it explode. If you try to turn the wheel, you'll get shocked with a lethal amount of voltage, even for shinobi. If you drill into it, either from the front, sides, top, or bottom, it'll explode. If you rip it out the wall, it'll explode. Temperature sensors inside monitor for heat and cold, so if you try to freeze it or melt it, it explodes. Sound-dampening material make hearing the click of the mechanisms impossible, as soundwaves are blocked entirely, and shock absorbers make feeling any kind of vibration from the locking mechanisms impossible to detect with any method, and if you decide to simply channel chakra into the safe and turn the tumblers, it'll explode. Without the combination, we're not getting into this thing without blowing ourselves to kingdom come."

"Start looking around," Arashi ordered. "Katsuragi is bound to have hidden the combination somewhere in this place, whether it be scribbled on a piece of paper or encoded."

They started scrounging around, while Shin'en was brainstorming. "What about water?"

Everyone paused.

"Water?" Yūwaku asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well, if you can't extend your chakra into the tumblers, can you, with demigod stuff, extend some water in there and do the same thing that you would with chakra?"

They all shared a look.

"Give it a shot," Arashi said.

Shin'en did as instructed, turning his fingers into water, water that he proceeded to guide into the safe through the tiny little gaps around the tumblers, and he fiddled around with the mechanisms, working them until her felt them unlock. After just ten seconds of working, Shin'en succeeded.

With a click, the wheel spun, and the door opened, giving Yūrei access to a hidden fortune of thick stacks of high-ryō bills and expensive trinkets.

After overcoming their surprise at that actually working, everyone clapped Shin'en's shoulders and gave praise at his accomplishment.

Although, the brightest side of all this was that all the money Yūrei made that night, they got to keep for themselves. The mission payment of course went to Mei, after the Ghosts had taken their cut out, but whenever _this_ happened, being double-crossed like they had been, and they raided the locale of their double-crosser, every bit of coin and buck looted was theirs to keep.

In a single night, after counting the cash, and counting the cash made from pawning and selling the trinkets and wares, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist made over a hundred million ryō.

Whoever said crime didn't pay was an idiot.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Originally, this chapter was going to be much grittier, with more pornography and torture, but we've already seen that stuff, so I brought in stuff that had only been mentioned, like employers setting Y**_ _ **ūrei up, the super-safes featured in chapter 17 of**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, and a brief stint into what one of the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water—who've got you covered—is like.**_

 _ **Now, we reach a crossroads.**_

 _ **Next chapter will be a timeskip, no more than a few months, and exposition about boring missions, with the chapter itself being about any of the many things I've come up with and mentioned in**_ **Backup Plan** _ **. As such, that gives me room…room for updating a different story.**_

 _ **I'm not talking about shelving this one and picking up another, but maybe a few chapters for something else. I have gotten several PMs asking for a**_ **Transcendence** _ **update, which I find cute considering how many are still squirming after chapter 28, even though I still gave you all fair warning about what you were about to read.**_

 _ **Yes, I am still salty about all the bitching and hate I received for that chapter.**_

 _ **So here's the deal: I'll keep up with**_ **Blood War** _ **,**_ _ **or**_ _ **I can crank out a few chapters for say…**_ **Roanapur's Sea Devil** _ **. I have been itching to get to it, but I've stayed away in favor of this fic. It'll all depend on popular opinion.**_

 _ **If the majority of Reviews are in favor of continuation, then so be it. If in favor of**_ **Sea Devil** _ **, then I'll do that. So on and so forth.**_

 _ **So, Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	25. Christmas in the Bloody Mist:Sweet Dream

_Christmas in the Bloody Mist: Sweet Dream_

 _ **Yes, my**_ **AC** _ **muse died. Luckily, I've had this chapter planned out in my head for a while now.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Timeline:_

 _August 18, 1010 A.S.—Shin'en turns ten years old and leaves for the Land of Water, undergoing his first interdimensional mission in the world of Sword Art Online, and subsequently wishing that his big sister not have any more dreams of him until then end of the Blood War._

 _August 19-31, 1010—Shin'en kills a baby for a mission, and Y_ _ū_ _rei officially begins to brainwash him by starving him and depriving him of sleep. Arashi instills in Shin'en the drive to do whatever it takes as long as it means Yagura's death and the end of the war. Shin'en explores the base, examining the rooms of his new family, and discovers the jarred remains of Y_ _ū_ _waku's son, Sukoshi. Emotionally disturbed, he proceeds to slaughter an invading group of bandits to clear his head, and Bullock shows him the incendiary tags. Returning, he heads to the battlefield where he and Y_ _ūrei proceed to kill everyone there. Arashi takes Shin'en to Yūrei's torture dungeon, and the personality known as Gatou takes shape. Following the interrogation of a Hidden Mist soldier, Yūrei heads to the house of Shou Nagai to assist in his completion of the Chimera Jutsu, and Shin'en kills the man's daughter, a twisted child prodigy who sacrificed her own parents and dog. After this event, Yūrei is contracted to kill the twins Yuki and Ame, and Shin'en completes the mission, only to break down afterwards. He undergoes a delirium, and Yūrei looks after him. After the end of the delirium, Shin'en is malleable and ready to be directed as needed, and Yūrei uses this to beat and further brainwash him to become a new person. Thus, a girl named Kimiko is "born," and given false memories._

 _September 1-9—Kimiko is adopted as the daughter of the Yasaka family, and fits in immediately. Physical ailments due to her "month" on the streets include malnutrition and infection, and her adopted mother treats her, spending a week with her to help her acclimate to home-living. Meanwhile, Shin'en covertly operates alongside Kimiko, scouring the Yasaka house. Upon finding what he's looking for, he investigates, and Kimiko accidentally kills her adopted father, triggering Y_ _ūrei's programming. The Yasaka family is murdered overnight, and the mansion burns down due to a lightning strike. Following this, Shin'en goes through a phase of torment at the hands of Kimiko's psychological presence, and stabs himself. Shin'en eventually enters his mindscape and seals both Kimiko and Gatou away._

 _September 10—Sukina shows Shin'en the sex-ed video pertaining to the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water—who have you covered—desensitizing him to fetishes and kinks. Following this, Y_ _ūrei is contracted to rescue Maya Katsuragi from a sex ring, only to be baited into a trap. Sukina and Shin'en slaughter the opposing force and in retaliation, Yūrei kills their employer and robs their mansion._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Kronos' scythe had splintered Shin'en's soul throughout his memories, the fragments had mostly deposited themselves in the most important ones. However, not every important memory was going to be viewed, as Shin'en's soul had only splintered so much. Therefore, not every major thing that happened in the Blood War was going to be seen, which also means that not every little thing that happened during the war was going to be seen.

God forbid, as that was two and a half years' worth of events, and no one had time for that.

It was also a good thing, too, that there were only so many memories that got to be seen, as the ones watching only had so much mental fortitude in the wake of the atrocities Yūrei had committed.

Of course, not every fragment of Shin'en's soul got placed in the Blood War. There were fragments from other time periods, most notably Shin'en's time with the twins, and his time with Asteria and Annabeth in _Xenophobic_ , but as this was a chronological viewing, such memories will not be viewed until much later down the line.

But none of that is important right now.

Buckle in and let's have some fun!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _December 20, 1010_

 _Land of Water_

For such a wet and muggy place, winters in the Land of Water were weird. Primarily because instead of ice and snow all over the place, as would be expected in the wettest place in the Shinobi World, it got warm, bright, and sunny.

Because of this, rays of sunshine streamed into Shin'en's room upon the morning. The light hit his face and he awoke, only, _he_ was not present at the moment. The one in his place sat up with a yawn, raising her arms over her head. Her back let out a series of satisfying pops, and a canine poked down from her upper lip.

When she finished yawning, she settled back down and tilted her head from side to side, popping her neck.

"Hmm," this girl wondered. "What to do, what to do…"

Then her face lit up. "I KNOW!"

She bounded out of bed, clad in a pair of shorts and a tank top, and went dashing out the door and down the hall. The rest of Yūrei was up and in the main hall, having coffee. None of them blinked when a streak of motion went flying out the door.

"Shin'en won't be happy about that," Bullock muttered.

The other three agreed silently.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It hadn't been an eventful three months, nothing out of the ordinary. Assassinations, thefts, some battles, torture—just the usual for Yūrei. Nothing but normal days at the office. The only outlier was the birth of Hiyumi, Shin'en's third personality behind Gatou and Kimiko.

Where Gatou was made for torture, and Kimiko had been made for the Yasaka family, Hiyumi had been made to be just a girl. No traumatic experiences, no emotional depth, just your average, everyday preteen spitfire of a girl. Her purpose was infiltration, but not deep cover like Kimiko. Hiyumi was the public appearance girl, used in conjunction with Sukina for reconnaissance of everyday places.

If that was the case, such a mundane and simple practice, why did something as drastic as a split personality even form, you might be asking, and the answer was that Hiyumi was an accident.

To throw off the maximum suspicion, Yūrei had Shin'en crossdress and put on an act. Simple, easy, and effective. The problem was that the demigod's mental barriers were not at all what they used to be. His mental fortitude had become shaken since Kimiko, and the subsequent mental trauma that followed. As such, soon enough, Hiyumi became less of a stage character, and more of her own character.

Not that Shin'en actually minded Hiyumi. She didn't bring him any kind of anything like Gatou and Kimiko did.

Still, that didn't mean that he was okay with her hijacking his body when he was sleepy.

That was because, deep down, Shin'en resented all three of them, for they were literal manifestations of his inability to handle things; a literal manifestation of his weakness.

And he couldn't be weak. Not when he had something to protect.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hiyumi bounded through the trees, grinning happily and yelling in joy. Seriously though, what preteen girl _wouldn't_ enjoy rocketing through the trees at a hundred miles an hour, feeling the wind ripping through her hair?

Anyway, because the weather got weird in the Land of Water's winter season, the traditional hibernating animals did not hibernate, meaning all the bears were still out and about, and Hiyumi knew about this one big bear that would be perfect for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for at least four days.

Yes, Hiyumi woke up, wondered what to do with herself, and decided that killing a bear was the best course of action.

While she was just the public girl, that didn't mean that she wasn't just a little unhinged.

Anyway, almost thirty miles away from the base, Hiyumi found her bear. It was a grizzly, covered in brown fur, and roughly the size of a tank. Standing on its legs, it would've been taller than your average two-story house. Animals in the Shinobi World were traditionally bigger than regular animals, due to the more oxygen enriched atmosphere free of pollution, and chakra.

Yes, chakra.

It's an overlooked thing that most might forget, but all animals had chakra coils. Dogs, cats, rats, snakes, birds, fish, everything had a chakra network in them. Plants, not so much, but the flora was more known for producing nature chakra, at least, it was known amongst Sages.

So, because of the purer oxygen and the presence of chakra, animals got to be really big of allowed to grow as such. The bear in question obviously had been around for a few years, which was just heartbreaking for PETA.

With a loud whoop, Hiyumi descended upon the sleeping grizzly.

At the sound of the approaching girl, the animal's eyes snapped wide open, pure white and bloodshot. With great speed for something so large, the bear rolled to the side, and Hiyumi crashed down on solid earth with a hard thump, not putting near enough force behind her descent to crack the ground.

But she could've.

"Hey, there!" Hiyumi chirped.

"GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

In addition to being extremely large and possessing of chakra, the wildlife also had the ability to speak human languages. Most notably the New Language, as opposed to the Old Language that almost everyone wrote in, but did not speak.

"That's not very nice," Hiyumi scolded.

The bear slammed his stomach, and released a pressurized blast of Wind Chakra that Hiyumi stepped to the side to avoid, and she whistled at the resulting destruction.

"You know, I have this cousin—"

The bear fired another blast, and Hiyumi dodged.

"—who's really into hunting—"

Blast and dodge.

"—and she has the group with her—"

Blast and dodge again.

"—I'm not sure if they're a bunch of lesbians—"

Blast. Dodge.

"—or, like, a girl scout troop—"

The bear mixed it up and went for a swipe. Bringing down its massive claws released several blades of wind that were once again dodged with ease. Thus a new game began.

"—but all of them are really into hunting—"

Swipe and dodge.

"—and I know they'd _love_ to hunt you," Hiyumi finished with a friendly smile.

"FUCK YOU, BITCH!"

The grizzly went for another claw strike, but Kimiko had been leading him in a circle, and he lost his bearings. As such, when he moved to step and attack, his paw hit a log and the log rolled, destabilizing the entire technique and leading to a loss of balance. The bear's eyes widened, and Hiyumi struck with a grin.

Her fist bulldozed into the bear's stomach with a massively loud boom, a shockwave blowing the forest debris away. The bear's guts came flying out of its mouth and rear, and the force behind the punch had completely caved in the chest cavity, and the gooey stuff inside was forced out. The bear's eyes dangled from their sockets by the optic nerve.

"Although," Hiyumi added as an afterthought, "with how strong you were, you'd probably eat their butts."

Her job here done, the girl of ten hefted an animal the size of a house onto her back, and started making her to the base, whistling a merry little tune all the way there.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hiyumi dumped the massive animal outside the door, because there was no way that thing was going to squeeze through the entrance. Inside, Hiyumi found the other Ghosts still casually sipping on coffee and reading newspapers. She sweat dropped.

"How was your outing, kiddo?" Yūwaku asked.

"Awesome!" Hiyumi chirped. "Flying through the trees, and this bear—outside by the way—was really big and he's going to be really tasty!"

"How big, exactly?" Bullock asked.

"Big enough to keep us all full for a month if we ration good enough."

"That's a lot."

"Yeah it is!" Hiyumi said proudly, hands on her hips.

"And how is Shin'en?" Arashi asked.

"He's fine—AGH!"

No sooner had she finished her sentence, then did Shin'en wake up. Hiyumi screamed as stabbing pain erupted across her mind, punishment for taking over without permission.

"Oh—come on—bro—!" the girl said in broken segments, sweating. "It—was only for—a little bit—since you—were tired—AHHH!"

Hiyumi screamed and her body turned to water. The water reshaped and vanished.

Shin'en stood there, clad only in a pair of briefs. His hair was down past his neck, having not bothered to cut it since he left the Cloud four months ago. His bangs hid his eyes.

"I hate it when she does that…" Shin'en said quietly. "Did she do anything?"

"She brought us a ton of food," Yūwaku supplied.

"Oh. That's what that bear corpse outside is."

Sukina rose from her chair and gave Shin'en a peck on his forehead. "Go get dressed. We'll clean it together."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took Yūrei two whole hours to clean the behemoth of a bear, stripping it of its pelt, draining the blood, separating the organs, flaying the muscle from the bones, sorting the muscles, sucking the marrow out of the bones, and then bleaching the bones for sale. Lots of weird people in the Land of Water did things with bones.

It wasn't even noon before the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist were done with their tasks, and it was a very beautiful day. Temperature was warm, there was no cold breeze, no clouds, birds and insects chirped and buzzed, and it was just the greatest day imaginable for a land torn apart by war.

Too bad none of Yūrei were day people.

"Are we running any missions today?" Shin'en asked Arashi.

The man grinned broadly and put a hand on the boy's head. "Not today! This is our official no-work day."

"What about Mei?"

"She can kiss our ass and eat our poop."

"Okay," Shin'en said simply.

He gave Sukina an expectant look, and she scooped him up in her arms and carried him to her room like he was a child…he was ten. Of course he was a child. The two proceeded to spend the whole day in Sukina's room, working on the music orangette's laptop with Shin'en in her lap the whole time.

Oh, the boy had changed. He had changed drastically, and it was both Yūrei's fault and intention. See, their greatest skill was _not_ murder, but making people. The Ghosts could take the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the legendary Terminator and killer of the Predator, and turn him into a fairy princess. Given enough time, the Ghosts could've taken Hashirama Senju himself, and turned the godlike man into a three-year-old girl still in potty training.

Not physically, of course, but mentally.

Breaking someone down and remaking them as they needed was what Yūrei's greatest skill was, and they had used it to great effect on Shin'en.

Gone was the vengeful child that sought only the death of all shinobi in all the lands. Gone was the dark being of mass destruction. Gone was the power-hungry demon who sought jutsu just for the ironic purpose of slaughtering ninja with their own techniques. In the place of the creature was ten-year-old little boy that acted based on the approval of those he loved, and those he loved were Sukina, Arashi, Yūwaku, Bullock, and Persephone.

Of course, that didn't mean that all of what Shin'en had been couldn't come rushing back at just the right emotional trigger….

Anyway, Shin'en was different because his mind had been seriously fucked with, and when it hit late afternoon and he was yawning, Sukina promptly said, "It's time for a little one's nap."

"Not sleepy," Shin'en said tiredly.

Sukina gathered him up in her arms and took him to his room, put him in his bed, and tucked him in with a kiss to his forehead.

"I'll get you up in about an hour," she said.

Shin'en stuck his tongue out at her, and then he snuggled into his covers.

Sukina rolled her eyes at the display and shut the door. Now out of Shin'en's sight, she closed her eyes and put up her barriers to keep the tears away. Not daring to speak aloud because the boy had excellent hearing and could read lips based on the water movement in the muscles, the orangette thought to herself.

' _We took a little boy with issues and replaced those issues with other issues. Instead of giving him the therapy and healing that he needs, we carved apart his head and molded him into a little monster. We're all going to die, and it's going to be horrible. It's what we all deserve.'_

Yūrei had done terrible things. Whatever contract that came to them, they performed as long as the money was good. Shin'en had done those terrible things too, more than just killing and torturing people, but those were stories for later.

Sukina pulled out a cigarette and lit it, taking a drag and exhaling the smoke. She then left Shin'en to his dreams.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And it one of his favorite dreams.

A dream of his sister.

It was night out, and in the living room was a species of tree Shin'en didn't recognize. It was covered in lights and decorations, the reason of which was lost to him. Over the fake fireplace, hanging from the mantle, were a trio of oversized socks. About the apartment were various decorations of similar nature to what was choking the tree.

To Shin'en's infinite irritation, the humanoid walrus was still there, though he was passed out on the couch with a beer in his hand.

Sally and Persephone were together in front of the TV sitting on pillows, cups of a steaming brown liquid in their hands, a large blanket draped over them both. His heart hurt just a little, but he had made his choice to be where he was, doing what he was doing.

On the television was a program centered around deer. Stop-motion seemed to be the technique in use.

"Mommy," Persephone said. "Why are they being so mean just because of his red nose?"

"Because it's a red nose, sweetie," Sally answered simply. "People are always mean to those that are even just a little different."

"Is that why people are mean to me? Because I'm different?"

"Mm-hm," Sally answered without mincing anything. "But being different is what makes you special."

"Percy's special too," Persephone said with a smile. "A _lot_ special. I wish he was here."

"I am here," Shin'en said flatly. He knew they couldn't hear him, but still.

Sally's eyes watered immediately, but Persephone didn't see. She focused on the TV, the sounds and images holding her ADHD in check.

"I wish," Sally's voice broke and she collected herself. "I wish he was here too."

"I _am_ here, you twits."

They didn't hear him, but still.

His sister was cozied up on Sally's right, so Shin'en plopped down on his mother's left, outside the warm confines of the blanket. He sat there and watched the whole story play out, his tactical mind analyzing details and drawing conclusions that were cynical.

Cheesy props and predictable storyline.

Shoe-horned singing.

Outdated technology and techniques.

And a central message of how you're only revered when you're useful.

Oh, and this Santa person was an asshole who let his subordinates bully Rudolph the reindeer's whole life, and then had the gall to ask for help in hauling several million tons of product across the planet. In this character's position, Shin'en would've given a very generous middle finger.

But Shin'en also needed psychiatric help, a therapist, counseling, and a lot of warm hugs, so his opinions should be taken with generous amounts of salt.

The program ended, and Sally shut off the TV. "It's time for this little one to go night-night, so Santa can come and give her some presents."

In Shin'en's experience, children often fought against bedtime. His sister must have been an outlier, or the promise of Santa was just that great, because instead of fighting Sally, Persephone's face brightened, and she bounded up and around the corner to where her room was.

Sally looked both happy and pained. She got up and took the mugs to the sink, and then went to her daughter's room, her son following.

Persephone was snuggled into the covers, eyes closed. At hearing her mother enter, her eyes popped open. "GoodnightmomloveyougoawayneedtosleepSantacoming."

Shin'en tilted his head at his sister's motormouth.

Sally laughed. "And did you brush your teeth and go potty before you got in bed?"

"Yes."

Sally's eyes narrowed. "Did you?" she asked with a pointed tone. "If you're lying and you get put on the naughty list, Santa won't bring you any presents."

Shin'en tilted his head to the other side, now recognizing this Santa situation as a tool to derive desired behavior, using subtle threats against the child to motivate them and coerce them into actions they deem to be positive.

This seemed like an underhanded tactic, and Shin'en frowned up at his mother, not liking how she used Persephone's desires against her in such a way.

On the demigoddess' part, instead of verbally answering and admitting to a lie, she bounded out of bed, skirted around her mother, and scampered into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her.

Sally rested against the doorframe. She put her face into her hands, letting on a shaky breath that bordered on a sob. Shin'en wanted to give her a hug, but he knew that he couldn't touch her and that she wouldn't feel him.

Minutes later, after the sound of flushing water and a running sink, the door unlocked, the light went out, and Persephone came scampering out. "Ready for bed!"

Sally had composed herself long before her daughter exited the bathroom, and she beamed. "That's my girl."

She tucked Persephone in, giving her a lingering kiss on her forehead.

"I love you, Mommy."

"And I love you, baby, very much." Sally's eyes held nothing but the warmest of feelings and highest of regards for her oldest child. "Sleep tight, angel."

She traced a finger down the side of Persephone's face, and the girl playfully bit at it with a giggle. Sally giggled back and poked Persephone's nose.

"I'll see you in the morning," the tired mother said.

She got up and left, gently shutting the door behind her. Shin'en lingered in his sister's room, her nightlight illuminating the area.

"Merry Christmas, Percy," Persephone said. "I love you."

"Love you too."

She couldn't hear him, but still.

Seeing as how the dream didn't end right there, and seeing as how his sister strived to fall asleep to hasten the arrival of Santa Claus, Shin'en phased through the door and looked for his mother. Something bothered her, and he wanted to know what it was.

Shin'en found his mother softly crying in the closet of her shared bedroom with the walrus.

"Bastard," she muttered through her tears. "That fat, disgusting bastard."

And then Shin'en was pulled into a vision, one of Sally painstakingly baking a cake at the candy shop she worked in, a beautiful creation of red and green, chocolate, sprinkles, and a smell so wonderful that Shin'en felt hungry.

Knowledge filled his head.

The walrus horded money, going so far as to drain Sally's wages from her barely above minimum wage job through their shared bank account as a legally married couple into his own private account, but Sally did nothing for fear of being beaten upon, and so she was stuck with barely fifty bucks in her own account at any time, and using the card tied to the shared account without the walrus's permission was grounds for being beaten.

More knowledge came to Shin'en, knowledge regarding the traditions of Christmas. Most notably, the giving of gifts.

Shin'en then saw how Sally had to spend so much of her meager funds to fill up her gas tank, leaving her with barely anything for a present for Persephone and the walrus—because God forbid that the animal not get anything for all the generosity he provided.

However, with her experiences as a child, being raised by an absent uncle in the wake of her parents' deaths, and her working of so many jobs at once and dealing with the attitudes of so many people, Sally had been made strong, and resourceful. So, with what money she did have, she bought the ingredients necessary for a cake meant for her, Persephone and the walrus to share together on Christmas Day.

Only for the walrus to have found it prematurely and gorge himself.

Shin'en's fury boiled, and he desired nothing more than to physically be there and deliver to his mother and sister the world. Not only that, but his ire extended beyond the situation at hand, and to the _gods_.

Was this truly how they treated their lovers and children? Saddle a woman with a child, an expensive item that required thousands of hours and millions of dollars? And then stick them with a slob of a man, that does nothing besides make life more difficult? On top of all that, no financial support at all?

Shin'en made a side note that after the Blood War, he was going to make some changes to this world of gods and men.

And then he was falling into a world of white.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

His brain had picked up the approaching presence of Sukina, and so he snapped awake. The door opened and the orangette was there. Immediately upon seeing him, she looked worried.

"Shin'en, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered flatly and clearly.

"Then why are you crying?"

Shin'en reached up and wiped tears away from his cheeks.

"You had another dream of your sister, didn't you?"

"Mm-hm."

"Oh, dear," Sukina muttered.

There was nothing Yūrei could do to stop Shin'en from having dreams of his sister, as it was demigod stuff and they could do nothing about demigod stuff. The dreams were a distraction, as they caused Shin'en to become screwy, so the best they could do to help him get back to unscrewyness was to play therapist.

Which they should be doing at all times, but they needed a little killing machine.

Not a little boy.

Sukina entered and sat down on the bed, pulling Shin'en into her lap. He took a cigarette from her pocket and lit it up with a spark of Lightning chakra.

"So, what's Persephone up to this time of year, or was it a current dream?"

Sometimes Shin'en had dreams of things in Persephone's life years past.

"Current," the demigod said. "Christmas."

Sukina was unfamiliar with the term. It was a Biblical concept, after all, and the Bible didn't exist in the Shinobi World. Thus, the story of the Wise Men bringing gifts to the Baby Jesus was an unknown story, and no Christmas tradition happened at the end of December. It was just another day of the year for ninja and civilians.

"Mom's really poor and the walrus is an asshole," Shin'en said. "I really want to kill it."

Sukina nodded with a hum. He never elaborated on just who the walrus was, and he refused to tell. It was a testament to just how much Shin'en loathed, hated, and despised this walrus, because as much as he hated, despised, and loathed Yagura, he still used the Mizukage's name. Also, Yūrei had no delusions that Shin'en was referring to an actual walrus.

"Mom took all the money she had, just enough for a small cake, and she baked it, and brought it home, and hid it, so she, Sephy, and the walrus could all share it, but the walrus found it and ate it all. You're supposed to give people presents for Christmas, and the cake money was all the money Mom had."

Sukina's mouth set into a thin line. The emotional center in her brain was mostly fried, so hearing this story about a cake and poverty didn't do much to tug at her heart strings, especially when she had seen kids begging for scraps with their ribs poking out of their chests. But she was an actress, and so she pulled a quick show.

"That's despicable," she said 'seriously.' "This walrus should be skinned alive and its blubber sold on the black market."

Shin'en nodded, buying it. "Why do bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people?"

"Because balance," Sukina said. "If there's good, there has to be bad; if there's bad, there has to be good. That's why such and such happens to so and so."

"Oh. Does that mean that it's good to be bad?"

"Not a clue," Sukina said. "I am not a philosopher."

"I'm not either."

Shin'en was almost done with his cigarette, so he took and put it out on his neck, pulled another one from Sukina's pocket, and lit it with Lightning chakra.

"You have a mission," Sukina said.

"I though Arashi said no missions today."

"He did. He said no missions for _us_. This a mission coming straight for you from some people who signed the invoice as Sue and Nose."

At hearing that, Shin'en's eyes popped wide open and he sucked the cigarette into the back of his throat and gagged. Sukina squeaked and performed the Heimlich. The cigarette butt went smashing against the wall.

"Do you know who Sue and Nose are?" she asked flatly.

"Yes," Shin'en replied dully. "What do they want?"

"They want you to investigate an island off the southwest coast called Seiuchi. Apparently, their son and his friends went fishing two weeks ago and haven't come back. They've investigated the other islands around the area, but Seiuchi is out of their reach. Waves are too strong."

"Okay," Shin'en said simply. "I'll get going."

Sukina nodded, moved him out of her lap, stood up and made her way out the door. When she was halfway through the frame, Shin'en said:

"Sukina…merry Christmas."

Not missing a beat though still ignorant about this Christmas thing, Sukina said right back:

"Merry Christmas, Shin'en."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And if I don't get the next chapter out by Christmas—of 2018 for those in the future—then merry Christmas!**_

 _ **Yep, I'm back with**_ **Blood War** _ **, and I'm making it a holiday special because I can. How about Gabe, huh? Isn't he just a jolly giant of holiday cheer, basically stealing Sally's money, eating the cake all by himself, and not staying up to watch Rudolph? It's okay though, we all know how Gabe's story ends as per**_ **Backup Plan** _ **canon.**_

 _ **In related news, the liberals are attempting to make Santa Claus gender neutral and are trying to ban Rudolph because it promotes bullying and think Ho, Ho, Ho is offensive, and I think the world needs a gigantic bowl of SHUT UP.**_

 _ **But we're all here to see an emotionally and mentally unstable ten-year-old kill people, not worry about idiots and their opinions.**_

 _ **Let's see if we can get the Favs and Follows higher this round of bloody chapters.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	26. Christmas in the Bloody Mist: Island

_Christmas in the Bloody Mist: Island_

 _ **Four Reviews…ouch. Was everyone without Wi-Fi, or does**_ **Blood War** _ **suck that badly?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _December 20, 1010 A.S._

Shin'en suited up quick as expected, and armed himself just as fast. Mask on, he bid goodbye to Yūrei and headed for the southwest coast of the mainland, intent on investigating the island of Seiuchi for "Sue" and "Nose's" son.

Sue and Nose.

Susano'o.

Shin'en hadn't had any contact with his patron god in months, not since his birthday and departure from the Hidden Cloud. He wondered what the storm god wanted, or what he was up to in sending a mission request to Yūrei. It had to be something important—or something stupid—elsewise the god wouldn't have bothered. Shin'en wondered if he was going to be sent on another interdimensional fixer-upper, and just what dimension it would be and what was going to be wrong with it.

He had a lot of time to think on it and come up with hundreds of different scenarios since it was a three-hour trip all the way down to the coast. Dusk had fallen by the time he reached the waves, and there was lightning dancing in the clouds upon the horizon.

Shin'en couldn't immediately sense anything, as the island of Seiuchi was out of his range, but he could feel the motion of the ocean, and only one island, ten miles out, had the crashing waves Seiuchi was described as having. Without further preamble, Shin'en hopped into the ocean from the cliff he was upon, diving in headfirst, and went shooting through the water faster than he had been moving across the land.

In seconds, he made it to the island's beaches, and by now it was drizzling heavily, the occasional flash of lightning illuminating the night. The rain didn't bother Shin'en, nor did the humid temperature brought upon by the falling water's warmth.

He studied the island.

A decent chunk of land, covered in forest with no civilization on it, just wildlife. Rather tall, with the island being like a slowly sloping cone. Jagged rocks poked out off shore, and there was a wrecked boat in the surf. Shin'en started his investigation into the whereabouts of Sue and Nose's son, and the demigod wondered if he was actually looking for Susano'o's offspring.

But the lack of a divine feel in the air told him no.

Shin'en inspected the wreckage, determining that, by the smell of alcohol that lingered in the wood, what had happened was a case of drunken sailing. The driver hit a stump and shredded the hull. Out of control and taking on water, the driver went for the first land they saw, and ended up wrecking here. Based on the lack of fishing equipment and the presence of beer and drugs, it was an aquatic party gone very wrong.

That's why it was Shin'en's expert ten-year-old opinion that drugs and alcohol were bad for you.

It was also his expert illegal black-ops operative opinion that drugs and alcohol were good for business.

He didn't sense any bodies in the water, or any bodies nearby, and judging by old the wreck was—several days—any tracks in the sand left by survivors would have been long since covered by the weather, this storm included.

Shin'en expanded his senses, channeling chakra into his gut where it tugged every time he used his divine powers, and letting the rain soak him to boost everything about him. The island of Seiuchi was big enough to where his sense hadn't previously covered the whole expanse, but now boosted and refined, he noted that there was a large house nestled in the trees in such a way that not a lot of rain water was hitting the roof. Also inside that house was an old man, and some corpses.

And a basement with some curious things down there.

With his powers so increased, Shin'en could feel the water particles in the air of this hidden home.

What he sensed brought a deranged smile to his face that matched the one painted along the bottom of his mask.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was…poetic.

Fitting.

Deliciously ironic.

He had a dream of the fat bastard bringing tears to his mom and eventual tears to his sister, and now he had the perfect chance to exact a proxied revenge on the pathetic excuse of a male homo sapiens. It was all so gloriously _right_ , that not even the distant wails of Kimiko—still crying after three months—didn't vex him or impede him.

Shin'en walked right up to the front door and gave it a hardy knock. The old man inside jumped in fright, rushed to grab his firearm—a big specimen of a rifle—and then stood by the door.

"Who is it?" came the muffled question.

"Oh, you know…" came Shin'en's distorted voice from behind his mask.

The old man pulled the trigger and the buckshot ripped through the door, and Shin'en's body. Now, it wasn't that the demigod couldn't have dodged—it would have been very easy, given his reaction speed and detection of the muscles pulling the trigger—and it wasn't that the pellets actually caused damage, for he had liquified his body, the pellets sailing right through him since he had made himself like water. It was that Shin'en was unhinged, and enjoyed playing his food.

Metaphorically.

He wasn't about to _actually_ eat the old man.

Shin'en played possum on the ground a few feet back, laying spread-eagle with his gaping chest to the sky. The door creaked open just as thunder rumbled overhead, creating a funny effect. The old man crept outward just a bit, then hefted his gun and fired again, aiming for Shin'en's head.

The child let it pop like a water balloon, the ground erupting from the pellets that peppered the dirt. Shin'en always found it funny how he could do this with his body, turning into water and water vapor, while still maintaining thought, cohesion, consciousness, and life, even though he literally didn't have a head right now.

The old man didn't bother dragging Shin'en into his house or trying to dig a hole, most likely because he was the only one living on this island, and it was far enough away from all other civilizations that he had no fear of his gunshots being overheard, especially with the storm bordering on full force.

Instead, what the old man did was shut his door, retrieve a plank of wood and a drill, and set about drilling said plank into the door to close the hole. Shin'en let the man do this, and after the fact, he brought his head back together and fixed his chest.

The demigod rose to his feet and knocked on the door again, and then promptly kicked it off the hinges. The flying portal slammed into the old man and sent him into the world of dreams with a broken back. Shin'en strolled in with a whistle like nothing had happened. With his hands behind his back—as was respectful when in someone else's home—he made his way down the stairs, dragging the old man behind with a chakra thread.

Still whistling to himself, Shin'en entered the basement area, and his tune turned into one, drawn out note at what he saw.

There was a surgical table with cabinets filled with liquids and tools, chalkboards close by with very interesting and grotesque diagrams on them about sowing the human body together inside of a skin sack shaped like that of a walrus. There was a body on the table, dead from the attempted procedure.

Down a set of metal stairs—retractable stairs—was something like one would see in a zoo. There was a big stone platform with an animal house and a chain tied to a stake, the platform being surrounded by a pool several feet deep. At the bottom of the pool were human skeletons in compromised positions, no doubt being victims of the procedure that had drowned.

Shin'en started humming the tune he had heard in the Christmas program, the song of Rudolph.

The boy was…not okay. He was angry, very much so. He was so angry, in fact, that it was his emotions that had brought about this thunderstorm. He just didn't realize it because so focused was he on his anger and his fantasies of revenge against Sephy's stepfather that the telltale tugging in his gut whenever he invoked his godly powers failed to breach his absolute threshold.

Humming the song of Rudolph, Shin'en tossed the corpse on the table away, and replaced it with the unconscious body of the master of this house. Gathering the equipment and tools, the demigod set about performing a despicable act.

A terrible act.

A vengeful act.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en was back upstairs, flipping through the journal of one Rawdoh Woeh, the old man.

" _September 5, 978 A.S._

 _I became lost at sea, with no land in sight. I feared that I would drown and my body would be devoured by sharks, by I was saved by the most unlikely of heroes: a walrus. The walrus brought me to shore on this island, and has become my friend. I have named him Mr. Tusk."_

Shin'en nodded his head. "Cool."

The door to the basement was left open, and terrible, panicked screams were resonating from below.

" _September 11, 978 A.S._

 _I've done something terrible. In the wake of being unable to find food on the island I…I killed Mr. Tusk in his sleep and ate his body. He was such a good friend! My good friend! And I didn't even give him a chance at survival. I chose a coward's tactic and killed Mr. Tusk without giving him a chance, killing him in his sleep. I am so ashamed and burdened with guilt that I do not know how I will go on."_

The screams persisted, and it was music to Shin'en's ears, as he imagined it was his mom's husband's screams.

" _September 13, 978 A.S._

 _I have had an epiphany: I will resurrect Mr. Tusk in human form and give him the fighting chance he deserved. I will need people to make this happen, and supplies. I must get off this island and return."_

From there, the journal documented Rawdoh's descent into madness, building this house, killing people, tearing their bodies up, his experiments in making a walrus suit that he could sow a human into, what size human was best, what gender, what conditioning he needed to make the person more like a walrus, etc. All in all, very grody stuff, but nothing to make Shin'en's stomach curl.

He was used to deranged lunatics like this by now.

One of them even resided inside his head.

The screams were getting kind of annoying though, so Shin'en just made a motion with his hand, and he slowly started to tear Rawdoh apart at the seams, making the death a very slow, very painful one. It was an end fitting for such a monster of a man, one that had killed almost a hundred people in thirty years, all for the sake of his ridiculous walrus fetish.

Shin'en liked to think he was bringing justice to the world for ridding it of such a despicable thing, and that he was avenging all the poor souls that had been tortured and maimed and disfigured.

With a strangled screech and a wet ripping sound, the screams of Rawdoh ended.

Humming the song of Rudolph to himself once again, his mind no longer in a twisted fever pitch, Shin'en started exploring the house. It was laden with trinkets taken from those unfortunate enough to come onto the island and find themselves at the mercy of the old man.

Why was Shin'en bothering with this practice?

Because it was Christmas, and he wanted to get gifts for his second family.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en left the house, still humming Rudolph's song. Outside, the rain had subsided and the night had become clear. There was even a visitor, dressed in the classic yellow raingear and hat that old fisherman were always depicted as wearing.

The purple eyes with the rings gave the identity of this fisherman away.

"Hi," Shin'en said.

"That was very mean," the storm god said academically.

"Alright, _Sue and Nose_."

Susano'o laughed heartily. "You saw through that, did you?"

"Yeah."

The one-word responses made conversation difficult, and Susano'o coughed awkwardly.

"Is there a reason you're here?" Shin'en asked.

"Yes," said the god. He produced a letter from his pocket, and a pen.

"What's this?"

"That would be a letter. You write things on it. And that would be a pen. You use it to write things."

Shin'en pursed his lips under his mask. "You're a butt."

He had heard his big sister use that phrase a lot, and it seemed appropriate.

Susano'o laughed in that boisterous way of his. "Your aunt agrees!"

Shin'en tilted his head. "Aunt?"

"Never mind. Here." Susano'o handed Shin'en the pen and letter. "I will give this to the Fates, and they will deliver it to Sally and Persephone."

Shin'en's heart skipped a few beats and his breath caught in his throat. He took the offered items, and felt the whole world slip away from him. The only things that mattered were in his hands, and what to do with them.

What did he say?

Did he say anything?

A quick comment?

A paragraph?

Did he fill the whole letter to the brim with text?

His eyes darted up to Susano'o, and saw the god was standing there patiently, smiling warmly.

Shin'en swallowed…and then the words came to him.

He scribbled down his message and handed the letter and pen back to Susano'o.

"Thank you," said the god. "Merry Christmas, Shin'en."

"Hm."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The demigod got back to the base a few hours before dawn. Yūrei was up of course, with the shinobi making it a point to stay awake as long as possible to increase their endurance and stamina, and who knew when a mission would come in. They needed to be prepared at all times.

Shin'en went zooming in through the door with all the speed of a certain blue hedgehog. He gave a quick "Hi" to Yūrei and went speeding to his room, slamming the door shut behind him. Then he got to work on wrapping the things he had got for them from Rawdoh's house.

At one point, Sukina came down the hall and knocked, before opening the door. Shin'en flew across the room with a yelp.

"WAH! Don't come in! Busy!"

Sukina blinked, and then left.

Back in the main hall, Yūwaku asked, "Is he masturbating?"

"There's a distinct lack of the telltale chemicals in the air," Sukina said. "I don't know what he's doing. If anything, he's being a child."

"Good," Arashi nodded sagely. "He is a child. Letting him be one for a little bit is good."

No one disagreed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About an hour later, as Shin'en was trying to get the wrapping in done in a way that was dignified and pleasing to him, he came out of his room and called out, "Close your eyes!"

Yūrei shared an amused look but did as told.

Shin'en came toddling from around the corner, making for a funny sight as his arms were laden with so many presents that he couldn't see over them. He made his way over, "Hold out your hands!" and started dropping the appropriate boxes into the appropriate limbs.

Yūrei had a pretty good idea what was happening, based on what Sukina had said in regards to Shin'en's dream about Persephone and this Christmas thing.

When the demigod was done, he stepped back and dusted off his hands, then placed them on his hips with a proud smile. "Okay! Open them!"

He was referring to both the eyes and the presents of course.

Yūrei opened their eyes and set about unwrapping the boxes they had been given with amused smiles on their faces.

Sukina pulled out a new camera, one with far more clarity than the one she had now, and her eyes widened considerably.

Bullock was treated to the sight of several spools of extra-strength fishing line, and he whistled.

Yūwaku was laughing her boobs off at the small mountain of catnip she received, both at the joke to her feline bloodline and the fact she was about to get high as a cloud.

Arashi's eyes nearly watered when he pulled out a twin-sized pillow with a happy stick-figure family embroidered upon the face.

Sukina reached out and pulled Shin'en into her bosom, and the rest of the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist gathered around them, all of them sharing a bit of warmth in the face of their cold lifestyle.

"Merry Christmas, Shin'en," Sukina said quietly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Manhattan_

 _Upper East Side_

 _December 25, 2003_

 _8:31 A.M._

Sally was half-awake in her bed with Gabe. There was a distinct gap between her and the slob, not that he recognized it. He was sprawled out across the other side, snoring like a chainsaw and polluting the air with his combination of morning breath and beer. Sally wanted to gag.

No, she actually wanted nothing more than to feed him so much cake his stomach burst open.

But those were mean thoughts, and she couldn't afford mean thoughts.

She couldn't afford anything really, since Gabe managed to find a way to legally steal her money, and what money she did manage to keep was sucked down the drain like water in a toilet bowl. Because of that, this day was a dreaded one. The money she scraped together ended up sliding out of Gabe's putrid rear sometime yesterday, leaving her with nothing to gift Persephone with for Christmas.

A lot of bad things went through Sally's mind in that moment.

She cursed her parents for dying in that plane crash when she was five. She cursed her Uncle Rich for not being any more financially stable than he was, and for getting sick enough to the point where she dropped out of high school to take care of him. She cursed herself for doing so. She cursed Poseidon for abandoning her. She cursed Gabe for everything that he was….And in a moment so low that reflecting on it in future times would bring tears to her eyes and guilt to every cell in her being, Sally blamed Persephone for so many problems.

All the money she made from her two jobs had to go to Persephone's diapers, to her clothes, to her bottles and pacifiers, to her strollers and car seats, to her vaccinations, and then the money had to go to pull-ups, more clothes, more medicines, sippy cups, educational films, toys, books, and then even more money had to go to school, more clothes, a different car seat, more shots, and even to this day, Sally was still having to spend hundreds on Persephone.

Sally had done the math, and she calculated that in the ten years her daughter had been alive, she had spent over five hundred thousand dollars on the girl.

In an even deeper low than these heretical thoughts, Sally gave thanks that her son _wasn't_ here, because that would have been even _more_ money she would have had to spend.

She sighed. All of this unfair—just a moment of weakness in the face of overwhelming stress, just and episode of cracking under the pressure. It wasn't their fault that her parents had died. It wasn't Uncle Rich's fault he had come down with cancer. It had been she who had spread her legs for Poseidon and become pregnant. And Poseidon had responsibilities and duties that required his attention, and laws that he had to abide by. It wasn't Persephone's fault that her smell was so powerful she started attracting monsters at just six years, necessitating the presence of a slime ball like Gabe.

And it was a _good_ thing Percy wasn't here. Not because of some cynical view, but a practical view.

Sally had barely been able to support one baby, two of them could very have bankrupted her and put in her in the terrifying position of having to give up one of her children, or even more terrifying, being brought before a court to have her ability as a parent judged and found wanting, and then having one of her children _taken_ by law.

Sally didn't know what she would have done with herself if one of babies had been taken in such a manner.

Yes, her son had been taken anyway, but at least it had been when he was only a few minutes old, and a more powerful bond hadn't been established. That wasn't to say being lied to and told that lung complications had resulted in him drowning in his own blood hadn't been devastating, but there was a small comfort in there not being so many fond memories to make the pain worse.

Now counting her small favors, Sally smiled faintly. She had one beautiful angel in her life, and she would have her second angel in time. She was sure of it.

Now, however, she had to go get Persephone up and break the bad news that Santa hadn't come. Sally wondered if it would be better to just outright tell her daughter that Santa wasn't real, and kill that magical part of one's childhood right then and there, but Sally wasn't like that. The world was cruel enough as it was, and Persephone's destiny would involve even more cruelty, so every magical childhood memory that could be made was going to be made and kept for all its worth, so help her God.

Now resolved, Sally made to leave bed and get Persephone up, but it turned out her job was already done.

The door creeped open, and Persephone padded in, face red and eyes wet.

Sally's heart constricted at the realization that her daughter had already been through the apartment and had seen the distinct lack of presents. She prepared for damage control, but she didn't need to.

"Mommy," Persephone said, lip trembling, "he was _here_."

Sally's thoughts went to the conclusion that some benevolent being had come through and delivered a mountain of joy for her daughter, and out there in the living room would be gifts galore, but if that was the case then why would Persephone be crying and not screaming her head off?

"I told you Santa would come," Sally tried confidently.

"I know he's not real, Mommy," Persephone directly admitted, making Sally a little sad, "I meant _Percy_."

This time Sally's heart nearly stopped.

"W-What?"

Persephone's hands had been behind her back, and she moved them forward to reveal a letter. She handed it over, and Sally unfolded the paper. Her hand flew to her mouth and tears fell.

On the paper was a beautiful drawing from the perspective of someone behind the focal point. Drawn from an angle was a detailed rendition of the television in the living room, drawn upon the screen was a still shot of Rudolph, and down from the television were three people. Their faces couldn't be seen, only the backs of their heads as was the viewpoint, but it was obvious who everyone was. The little head on the right with the straight hair was Persephone, a little mug of hot chocolate off to the side, steam rising from it. In the middle, with the largest head and the full head of curly hair, was obviously Sally. And then on the left was a transparent figure, visible only by the outline of their hair. Draped across the three figures was a blanket shaped around the family's bodies.

All of it was done in pen.

At the very bottom of the letter were words and a signature:

 _I thought the movie was kinda boring, and the walrus really stunk, but the smell of the hot chocolate was much better. Merry Christmas,_

 _Percy_

Persephone smiled at her mother through her happy tears.

"Bestest. Christmas. _Ever_."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And this is my gift to all of you. Don't expect any more updates till after the big day, and don't expect much more fluffiness.**_

 _ **Merry Christmas of 2018 to all of you, and may your holidays be filled with cheer and happiness!**_


	27. Pedophile Party Person

_Pedophile Party Person_

 _ **I hope you all had a merry Christmas with your families, and that spirits were kept high and well.**_

 _ **Santa Claus brought me everything on my list—the four seasons of**_ **Teen Titans** _ **that I didn't have, all of**_ **Young Justice** _ **, and all of**_ **Batman Beyond** _ **—and my family took care of the rest, getting me the illustrated**_ **Lightning Thief** _ **, and the graphic novel version of**_ **Battle of the Labyrinth** _ **.**_

 _ **My elder cousins were shocked at me finishing the whole graphic novel before we finished watching**_ **Ready Player One** _ **as a family in my grandmother's living room.**_

 _ **I also made my dad cry because me, my mom, and my sister got him a picture frame, with the picture being one taken several years ago on Christmas, depicting my dad smiling, me hugging his neck and smiling—wearing**_ **Cars** _ **pajamas—and my four-year-old-at-the-time sister sucking on her pointer and middle fingers, grinning around them.**_

 _ **At the bottom of the frame is a Bible verse:**_

"…stand firm in the faith…let all that you do be done in love (I Corinthians 16:13-14)."

 _ **Good times.**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed them, because I'm plunging you suckers right back into Hell!**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _You are the thirteenth person who has wanted to rape me. Pedomaru indeed."_

 _-Shin'en referring to Orochimaru's desire to take his body._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _January 13, 1011 A.S._

Sukina had seen many sad things in her long nineteen years in the world of the living. She had many examples of both kinds of sad: the kind of sad that is pathetic, and the kind of sad that would make one shed tears.

She had seen dignified nobles reduced to blubbering babies at simply being stabbed with a needle; pathetically sad.

She had been in the presence of powerful warriors begging for their lives like the poor would beg for scraps; pathetically sad.

She had seen mighty men of great repute and status on their hands and knees obediently sucking the cocks of preteen boys while animal-tail buttplugs vibrated inside their asses, puddles of their own semen between their legs; disgusting and pathetically sad.

Sukina had seen children crying over their dead siblings, chunks of viscera staining the area; tearfully sad.

She had seen parents cradling their dead swaddled infants, taken by disease, bawling their eyes out; tearfully sad.

She had even adopted a puppy once, and the little thing just couldn't stop licking her and loving her and being endlessly grateful to have been adopted. She put an explosive tag on the puppy and sent it into a target's tent in the middle of the night.

She still had nightmares due to the guilt.

Tearfully and pathetically sad that she, a highly trained and highly skilled killer and assassin, would feel such strong emotion over sending a loving and loyal puppy to his death, when she had done so much worse to human beings and didn't feel a thing for them.

Sukina theorized that a lot of people were emotionally detached and morally disengaged when it came to their fellow man, but dogs? Nope.

She digressed, however.

It wasn't often that Sukina encountered situations that were both pathetically sad and tearfully sad, but they happened. One such example was just yesterday, when she was having her quiet time, Shin'en nestled into her lap, both of them listening to the music she had created, when the boy's face scrunched up, his cheek bulging as he worked his tongue inside.

Sukina watched on with a raised brow, a cigarette hanging form the corner of her lips.

Shin'en reached into his mouth, jimmied his fingers a little bit, and then brought his hand out. The digits were covered in his saliva, and nestled between his fingertips was one of his baby teeth. He displayed it with a proud smile. Sukina smiled right along and grabbed her new camera, snapping a picture and placing it on the collage that dominated an entire wall.

It was pathetically sad to her that a cold killer like Shin'en would be so proud of something so asinine like pulling out a baby tooth.

It was tearfully sad to her that despite all the sins he had committed, Yūrei was able to prove there was a sweet little boy still in there, and they were all determined to kill him.

Sukina kept all of this to herself, however. She did not bottle it up and keep it tightly locked, like Shin'en did regarding his struggles and strife. Instead, she practiced the philosophy she would teach him years hence, and let her emotions flow like a gentle stream.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"We've got a mission," Arashi bluntly stated when he poked his head into Sukina's room.

"We gonna kill somebody?" Shin'en asked.

"Yep. A rapist."

"You mean we're going to do something _good_? Are the end times upon us?"

"Maybe. And what did I tell you about good guys and bad guys in a war?"

Shin'en held up a finger and closed his eyes as he brought out his academic side. "There are no good guys or bad guys. Just guys."

"That's right," Arashi said proudly.

Sukina ruffled Shin'en's hair.

"Both of you meet me in the main room," the leader instructed with a smile.

Seconds later, the five Ghosts of the Bloody Mist were gathered about a round table.

"The client is a Mister Hiashi Dogi. He wants us to kill Mister Ryugi Koto for raping his fourteen-year-old daughter."

"Credibility?" Sukina asked.

"Solid."

"Payment?" Bullock inquired.

"All in advance, and counted. Mr. Dogi is blinded by rage desperation."

"Ryugi Koto?" Yūwaku prompted.

Arashi's lips curled up. "A son of one of the Water Daimyo's higher court members. Ryugi is a little shit of a daddy's boy, riding on the coattails of the fame and fortune that belong to his father. He believes correctly that status and wealth grant him immunity from the law, and as such, he does as he pleases, typically hosting lavish parties. He's been suspected of raping the daughters of dignitaries for almost a year now, but money talks louder than accusations. There's also a rumor about that his father wants him to rape the girls, as it provides a source of shame for the family in question."

"Proof?" Shin'en tilted his head.

"None," Arashi grinned, "but all the alleged raped girls are members of families that are rivals of the Koto family. What a coincidence."

"Plan?" Sukina asked.

"Koto is hosting a party in two nights at his father's mansion in the middle of the rich district in Otuku, a day's run at quarter-speed. The plan is to infiltrate as guests, and take Koto out quietly, without causing a scene. His weakness is little girls, and we have two of those in company."

Shin'en could turn female at will, and he had Kimiko and Hiyumi in his head, and Sukina, with her bloodline, could change everything about her body.

The demigod pouted and crossed his arms. "And you want me to be the girl and lure him upstairs or something, almost get raped, and jam a kunai in his face?"

"More or less," Arashi shrugged.

"Backup Plan?"

"We kill everyone at the party."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _City of Otuku_

 _January 15, 1011 A.S._

 _Early evening_

It was the night of Koto's party, and Yūrei was ready. Doing some investigation about the city during the day yielded that Koto Senior was currently engaged in some verbal sparring with another dignitary, and said dignitary's family would be in attendance.

Including the dignitary's eleven-year-old baby girl.

It was just so perfect.

Of course, these dignitaries would not be attending, as they were all under a combination of drugs and genjutsu, and were therefore too inebriated to do much besides lay in bed. It was okay though. Yūrei was very good at acting, and only after just a few hours of observation, they had enough to pose as the family. The carriage driver was none the wiser as he ferried the finely-clothed assassins to their engagement for the night.

Of course, the snag Yūrei had hit was Hiyumi.

Inside the dignitary's residence, all dressed up and pretty and handsome, it came down to Shin'en's alternate personality.

"Okay, Shin'en. You look adorable in your dress, but we need Hiyumi. Unless you want to pull this off," Arashi said.

"Hiyumi's fine," Shin'en said. "She wants to get out anyway."

The demigod's body became like water, losing shape, and then recoalesced into a shape not at all different, but the air around them was certainly askew. Hiyumi's eyes popped open and she grinned.

"I _love_ this dress. So, what're we up tonight, exactly?"

Arashi tilted his head. "We're infiltrating a party to lure a child rapist somewhere secluded so we can kill him. You're the bait."

"Oh, if that's all then what are we—hold up." Hiyumi realized what she had just heard.

She spun on her heel and attempted to flee, but Sukina calmly reached out and grabbed the girl by the top of her head. That didn't stop Hiyumi's legs from moving so fast in place they appeared to become like a wheel, reenacting the classic scene from cartoons when a character runs in place.

Yūrei let Hiyumi continue this practice until she started wearing through the floor. Sukina bonked the girl's head with enough force to plant her into the ground.

"Get your stinky little butt up and listen," the orangette said flatly.

Hiyumi got to her feet and dusted her dress off. "My butt is not stinky. I'll have you know that I have never pooped or tooted."

"Moving on," Arashi deadpanned. "I said you are bait, not that you will actually be spreading your legs and giving yourself up. All four of us will be there to prevent anything from happening."

"Well, what if he doesn't want between my legs," Hiyumi protested. "What if he wants between my jaws, or between my butt cheeks?"

All very valid concerns in the mind of a ten-year-old assassin girl.

All very valid concerns in the mind of any sane individual in this line of work, though being in this line of work willingly casts doubt upon the sanity of the individual in question.

Arashi reiterated his statement verbatim. "All four of us will be there to prevent anything from happening."

"Trust us, kid," Bullock said. "We've got your back."

Hiyumi pursed her lips. "Okay…but I will paint the whole place red in everyone's blood if I get too anxious."

"Oh, good," said Sukina. "That's the backup plan if quietly and privately killing Koto falls through."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The party was a simple affair.

A small orchestra played light-hearted music. Servants walked the floor with platters of hors d'oeuvres and drinks. A long table in a room offered a buffet, and there were seating arrangements provided for those eating. There was even a little play area set up to accommodate any children brought along, but any children actually present were the sons and daughters of the otherwise noble, and were therefore expected to be by their parents' sides and to be on their best behavior.

The guests were all dressed in finery, and no one knew Yūrei apart from anyone else.

Arashi, Yūwaku, and Bullock melted away, leaving Sukina to hold Hiyumi's hand.

Amidst the dozens of smells in the air, Hiyumi noted one strange one. "I smell baby powder," she said to Sukina.

"In order to avoid embarrassing situations, such as accidents or having to be excused for the bathroom, or having to leave early for a toilet-related issue, some nobles will put their children, regardless of their age, in a diaper or a pull-up to save face."

Hiyumi's nose wrinkled. "So all these high and mighty people put their kids in diapers so they don't have to go use a bathroom? _Grose_."

"Of course," Sukina said, sarcasm lacing her voice. "All these rich and powerful people having to take time out of their party hours to partake in the same toilet practices that us commoners do? Perish the thought. And besides, all of their shit doesn't smell anyway."

Hiyumi giggled. "Yeah, but our shit smells, doesn't it?"

"Yes it does," Sukina said. "Now get in character. You're the daughter of a rich and powerful family."

"Right," Hiyumi nodded. "Rich and powerful."

She schooled herself, adopting a serious face and taking a stiff posture. Hiyumi parted her lips slightly, and ventriloquized, "Status?"

See, the masks of the Ghosts had this nifty ability to turn invisible, meaning that everything their masks did was still active, including the radio link. However, if one saw you talking and couldn't hear any sound, they might do any number of things. Hence, the ventriloquism.

Bullock's voice buzzed in. "I'm on the ceiling and have visual on you two. No sign of Koto."

Yūwaku chimed in. "I've made it to Koto's quarters. In position for backup if needed."

"This is Arashi. I have eyes on Koto. He's making his way to grab the stage."

On que, the hired samurai guards began to politely ask the guests to gather in the main hall for Koto's address. Minutes later, everyone was gathered in the main area, a set of twisting stairs leading up to the second floor of the mansion. Koto was coming down, and there was clapping at his simple entrance.

He gave a speech, but it was unimportant, as was any kind of description. Rapists deserved no such honor.

Sukina position herself to where she and Hiyumi were visible to the man, and his eyes lingered on Hiyumi, making her skin crawl as she could feel the thoughts and desires going through his brain. She would've made an expression, but she had to be cool.

Noble girls couldn't lower themselves to the commoner's level and express emotion.

Or by going to the bathroom like normal people.

After the speech ended and Koto allowed the guests to resume their activities, he started to mingle, shaking hands and sharing small talk. At that time, Arashi gave the green light to begin the final stages of the operation.

Sukina bid Hiyumi temporary goodbye, leaving to go get drinks. She disappeared into the crowd. Koto's eyes followed Hiyumi like a dingo watching a baby. After minutes passed and Sukina had yet to return, he made his move.

Hiyumi played the lost girl worried for her mother quite well, and she eagerly followed Koto up a side set of stairs on the promise that he would help her find Sukina. Of course, he was leading her right up to his private chambers to have his way with the ten-year-old. Entering, Hiyumi furthered her act of the lost and confused girl, and Koto locked the door behind him.

Then he produced a rag soaked in a chemical and jammed it over Hiyumi's face. She did not lose consciousness, but she found that she couldn't move. Her limbs did not respond, her vocal chords wouldn't move properly, and she couldn't even get her face to tick. The only thing she could do was move her eyes and breath.

And then she was very, very afraid.

Koto bragged about how the formula on the cloth was designed to bring down high-level shinobi, and that a little girl like Hiyumi didn't stand a chance against it. He picked her off the floor and threw her onto the bed, then he jumped on top with a lecherous giggle, his eyes dilated and his lips curled back, saliva dripping from his mouth.

The very image of a perverted madman.

He ripped away the front of Hiyumi's dress, and then tore away her skirts and underwear. Koto raved about everything that he was going to do to her, all the depraved and vile acts he had planned, and Hiyumi's heart increased in tempo.

She was not a high-level shinobi. As chakra was made from the physical energy generated by the body and the mental energy made from the mind, her chakra was not like Shin'en's chakra, as her mind and body were vastly different than his. If she wasn't so panicked right now, she would've just switched placed with him and give him back the spotlight.

Koto pinned Hiyumi's arms above her head, and leaned down to give her face a long, slimy lick, but that never happened.

Massive claws suddenly ripped right through Koto's midsection, and another set appeared under those, spraying blood everywhere with wet squishing sounds. Amid Koto's screams, Yūwaku's wrath was heard, and with a feline growl, she ripped the rapist in two, his guts spilling all over the bed.

Yūwaku tossed the halves to the side, breathing rapidly in anger.

She had activated her bloodline, her teeth becoming pointed, her hair becoming wild, her eyes bloodshot with slit pupils, a tail sprouting from her behind, and her hands becoming grotesque things three times the size of normal hands, long and sharp claws replacing each fingernail.

Hiyumi's tear ducts were leaking by the end of it all.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took another ten minutes after that for the chemical to wear off, but Yūrei was long gone by then, having slipped out of the mansion after Sealing up Koto's corpse and burning the scroll, leaving only the head on the bed as proof of his death.

Yūwaku was carrying Hiyumi the whole way. Even when she regained movement, the girl just clung to the lioness of a woman, too shell-shocked and terrified to do anything else besides shiver and hold on.

Midway back to base, Hiyumi finally calmed down enough to where Shin'en wrested back control. Upon inquiry as to his other part's mental self he simply stated, "She'll be fine."

A statement proven true hours later when he let Hiyumi back out and she was her usual perky and bubbly self.

"Thanks, Yūwaku!" she chirped.

"Anytime, Kitten!" Yūwaku grinned.

"Thanks for having her there," Hiyumi said to Arashi.

The leader of Yūrei smiled broadly, his tooth shining in the light. "I told you we'd nothing happen. Getting drugged like that is just part of the job thought."

Hiyumi grinned as she went back into Shin'en's head space.

And that was the story of how Yūrei did one of many things that would cause strife in coming days. Strife over those they saved, and those they damned. Strife as the people fought for their standing on Yūrei.

The standing of whether the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist were truly the bad guys or the good guys.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Yep, that got rushed at the end.**_

 _ **Yep, it's only 3k.**_

 _ **See, this story is now taking an epsiodal approach to things, in that each chapter will be a mission, and each chapter will only be as long as I want it, because unlike production companies, I am not obligated to make something last for twenty five minutes, or write something that's over four thousand words.**_

 _ **As for the ending abruptness, I mean…if you want to read in-depth about the interaction between a child rapist and a child, I've still got a lot more chapters, so a situation like this is going to happen again, and I can make it more detailed.**_

 _ **I write for the people, after all.**_

 _ **I also hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas, because I asked a lot of my coworkers tonight at work—the 26**_ _ **th**_ _ **of 2018 for those in the future—as to what they did yesterday to celebrate, and they all gave me really sad and dejecting answers.**_

 _ **So give thanks, those of you who were able to be together with family in high spirits, eating good food and telling fun stories, and exchanging gifts, because a lot of people didn't get that privilege.**_

 _ **Also Review. Please.**_

 _ **For the love of Baby Jesus, Allah and Money, Review.**_

 _ **And Fav and Follow. But mostly Review.**_

 _ **Reviews are what let me know I'm doing a good job.**_

 _ **And Happy New Year!**_


	28. Bullies

_Bullies_

 _ **Alright, so: when coming up with a character, every bit of them is important, down to hidden details, like blemishes on the skin, and choice in underwear, like I've stated previously when Y**_ _ **ūrei was conditioning Shin'en to become Kimiko.**_

 _ **That process applies to Persephone, who, despite being Shin'en's sister and Sally's daughter, is still an OC with character and backstory and little quirks and ticks. When making her—or remaking her, really, since I've expanded my skills as a writer, I think—I applied the above stated process, and determined that Persephone's favorite undies are boyshorts, because in her experience, with the way her butt is shaped, hipsters and bikinis ride up too much.**_

 _ **Her favorite used to be briefs, and here comes the reason for this wonderful introductory AN about Persephone's choice in panties: when she was younger, and not yet in private schools, she was in regular elementary that got out at the end of the day, and if your parents weren't there to pick you up, you had to ride a bus to a daycare, or walk home, which was heavily frowned upon in the bustling world of Manhattan.**_

 _ **Before we get to the daycare bit, we need to cover the clothes. As stated in the Christmas chapter, the struggle is real for Sally. She's got money coming in, but it's all being taken. As such, she had just enough to buy Persephone two complete sets of school uniforms, which conveniently shrunk in the dryer. With not enough time left before school starting, and no opportunities to pencil in time to go back to the store to return the uniforms and buy a bigger set, Persephone had to make do.**_

 _ **So, with shorts that slid down, and a shirt that came up, the waistband of her briefs was visible, and made her a target for bullies at the daycare, a group of girls of course, who got their kicks by yanking really hard on Persephone's undies, giving her a wedgie that burned.**_

 _ **There's more to that story, but it'll be covered much later in life.**_

 _ **Now you're asking, if you read all of that: DI, why did you make such a long-winded AN about Persephone's underwear?**_

 _ **Well, my devoted followers, that's because as I was thinking out the reason for Persephone liking boyshorts over briefs due to bullies giving her wedgies because her briefs were showing—creating traumatic memories—I had a slew of other bullying things that just went flowing through my head.**_

 _ **This chapter is what I came up with, and no, it is not about Persephone. If it was, there would be enough bodies to cover an entire ecosystem.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO…but I think I own Yūrei, as where their character designs are based off _Akame ga Kill_ characters, I came up with their personalities and backstories.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _February 1, 1011 A.S._

 _City of Bukit_ _ō_

 _Byakuren Daycare for Friendship and Tolerance_

Mijime Sato was the most miserable girl in the world, hands down, no question. She was nine-years-old and lived in a hovel with no running water, no electricity, no gas, and no father. What money her mother made from her whoring and prostitution went to alcohol and drugs. If the woman wasn't stoned, she was drunk, and if she wasn't either, she was sleeping or getting nailed.

Mijime was only able to go to school and then to this daycare because of a government mandate that required all children below the age of fifteen to be enrolled in any academic setting, with the costs of needy children being accommodated. Mijime was certainly a needy child.

She tried to be strong and independent, and she was successful for the most part, able to scrape together money from little odd jobs like dog-watching and babysitting, and she was great in school, having the highest grades in her whole class.

Which made her a target.

Mijime was a small nine-year-old, due to her rather poor diet since there was hardly ever any food at home, leaving her to eat out with her pocket change whenever she got the chance, and only the nasty, greasy foods were cheap enough to buy. Her hair was black, reaching below her neck, and she had it tied in a set of bushy twin tails. Her hair was messy and dirty, however, since there was no running water at home. Her skin was fair, and her eyes a deep green.

While her tiny body added to her targetability, it was her grades that sparked the greatest outrage. It wasn't fair to the other students that she, a street rat that smelled most of the time, and was in this school because of government assistance, had better grades than them, they who had rich parents and private tutors.

Just another classic example of the inferiority complex.

Anyway, Mijime's classmates had older siblings, _bigger_ siblings, and conveniently, they all attended the same daycare after classes. The daycare had a playground, rather asinine for a facility that housed younger teenagers, but it also housed small children and elementary students, so yeah, playground. As this was about as prestigious as a daycare as a daycare was going to get, it had a high-end playground, with top of the line equipment, guaranteed for hours of constructive activity for healthier children.

The collective favorite was the hand-built wooden playhouse two stories tall, the ground floor of which having only an open space for a door, and two openings on the sides for windows, making it the perfect blind spot for kissing and other activites.

Such as cornering tiny nine-year-olds that no one cared about.

Mijime's lower lip trembled as her bullies stared her down with evil grins. These were the three big sisters of the three girls that in Mijime's class that hated her the most, because she was Number 1 while the others were Numbers 2, 3, and 4 respectively, and they all hated her for it. So, the little hellions got their bog sisters to bully Mijime.

Although, perhaps _bully_ was too soft a word for what these girls did to Mijime.

The oldest bully clucked her tongue. "My sister tells me that you got perfect marks on the last math test. Now, I distinctly recall telling you to flunk it, did I not? Girls?"

The other two murmured in agreement like the obedient little slaves they were.

Not that Mijime would ever say that aloud.

The bully gave the little girl a pointed look. "Didn't I say to flunk it?" she prompted.

"Y-Yes, m-mistress."

"That's right," the bully nodded. "Now, what do you think your punishment should be for disobeying your mistress?"

Mijimi gulped. They always did this, make her choose from a list of past punishments, only to do whatever they wanted in the end. Still, it was better to just play along and get this over with.

"Um, a…um…uh…how about…a yellow swirly?" Mijime tried both hesitantly and hopefully.

"Hm, a yellow swirly," the bully put a hand to her chin in thought. "Now, that _is_ a good idea, but if we gave you a yellow swirly, we would've brought this chocolate syrup along for nothing."

The bully to the left produced a plastic bottle of chocolate syrup, the kind commonly used for making chocolate milk.

"I'm thinking, instead of a yellow swirly, we go with… _chocolate rocks_."

The girls chuckled dangerously, and Mijime paled.

For whatever reason, the playground's floor space was covered in thousands of tiny rocks, thousands of pebbles. The boys like to grab handfuls of them to throw at each other, and being hit with one of those pebbles _hurt_. However, those little rocks could be used for far more sinister purposes than projectiles.

"Get her, girls."

Mijime knew better than to fight back, not that she could manage with her frail frame, and she let the girls have her way with her. She ended up with her face pressed into the rocks, her shorts and underwear around her knees, her bottom raised high in the air. Two bullies were on either side of her, each of their arms holding her down, the other holding open her cheeks for access.

"Now, Mijime," the bully said, and the other two allowed the girl to turn her head to the side.

"Yes, m-mistress?"

"You disobeyed me and got perfect marks on the test, so how many rocks do you think we should use to punish you?"

Mijime swallowed. "Um, there were thirty-two questions, so uh…fifty…rocks…mistress?"

"Fifty? Hm, that it a good number, but since you made a hundred on the test, I think we should use a hundred rocks, don't you agree?"

Mijime felt her heart slow down. "Yes, mistress. An excellent choice."

She couldn't see any of their faces, but she knew they were all scowling, and she cursed herself. When her heart slowed down like that, and she became resigned to her fate, the quiver left her voice and all fear vanished from her.

It wasn't any fun for the power-drunk bullies if their prey didn't put up any fight or show any emotion.

"Since you're so okay with a hundred, how about we do two hundred, huh!?"

Mijime put a stutter back in her voice to appease her mistress. "N-No, please! I don't think I could take that m-many!"

"Fine, since you're so good at begging, I suppose we'll compromise and go with a hundred and fifty."

"Y-Yes, mistress."

"And since you're so good at math, I want you to count aloud each rock, got it?"

"Y-Yes, mistress."

Mijime closed her eyes tightly, and started counting out each rock her bullies pushed inside her.

"One…two…three…

"…twenty-three…twenty-four…

"…eighty-eight…eighty-nine…"

Mijime was crying from the humiliation and the pain of having so many small rocks pushed into her body. Ten would've been just fine, but it started to hurt at sixty, with her small stomach having to expand to accommodate so much extra stuff.

"One hundred and thirty…one hundred and thirty one…" Mijime kept counting. Then, finally, with a shuddering breath, she said: "O-One hundred a-and fif-fifty."

"Great job!" the bully praised. "Now, what comes next?"

"The choc-chocolate," Mijime answered with a strained voice.

"That's right. The chocolate. It wouldn't be chocolate rocks, without the chocolate."

Mijime could tell by the bowed-in body of the bottle that it was close to empty, which meant that her bully intended to empty it.

The bully worked the cap off, threw it at Mijime's face, and then she gave the nozzle a few licks before putting it at the nine-year-old's anus, and working it inside. Mijime whimpered at the large invasion, and then she had to keep the scream in when she felt the syrup get squeezed into her in massive globules.

Mijime's insides protested heavily to this treatment, but she dared not give in and void her tortured bowels…not until she had permission. The bullies laughed at her expense. It was an evil trio of laughs, full of twisted joy and malice.

The laughter of demons.

The laughter of evil.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mijime was redressed and her stomach was misshapen if you looked close enough, and the girl looked to be in pain.

"Now, Mijime," the bully said. "You'd better hold that in until I say you can go, got it?"

"Yes, m-mistress."

"Do you remember what you need to say when you can't hold it anymore?"

Mijime swallowed. "I…I need to go poo-poo…"

The two lesser bullies snickered, and the head bully smirked. "That's right. And just remember that I give permission, even if you say that, understand?"

"Yes, mistress!"

To put salt in the wound, the bully leaned down to give Mijime a kiss on her forehead. "You are such a darling. Come on, girls."

The trio left Mijime alone under the playhouse, and she grabbed at her stomach, clenching her sphincter shut with everything she had. Three hours, she rationalized, three hours until they got bored with watching her squirm and wanted to see something else, and that something else depended on the head bully's mood.

She'd either order Mijime to release in her pants, or she'd be merciful and allow Mijime to use the toilet.

Of course, as tight as she was holding it, the most miserable girl could feel some of the syrup leaking into her panties, taking a few rocks with it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Three hours later, and Mijime had displayed tremendous physical ability. She was able to keep her sphincter shut for so long that her bullies were picked up by their parents before she could give them the satisfaction of humiliating herself by informing them of her need to "poo-poo."

Ten minutes after she became one of the last five children at the daycare, she excused herself and went to the bathroom, where she dropped her pants and planted her butt on the seat. The following sounds needed no description, but Mijime felt a feeling of relief so great that no words could accurately describe it.

After she was done, she looked into the toilet bowl and suddenly felt dread. The bowl was full of rocks. The syrup was inconsequential, but those little rocks…the plumbing….Mijime eyed the nearby plunger, and figured she was going to have to put it to use. She couldn't go tell any of the adults this; they wouldn't believe her if she told them that the most outstanding girls in attendance had bent her over and shoved rocks in her butt, followed by a generous amount of chocolate syrup.

Of course, the alternative was that she went and got a trash bag from the nearby kitchen, and hand-scooped the rocks into it, but the problem with that idea was that the bag might get too heavy for her tiny body to move, and it'd just be stuck, or it might rip.

On a side note, it should be noted that the idea of sticking her hand into toilet water burdened with items that she had just voided from her bottom didn't bother her.

With Mijime's deductive reasoning, she decided the plunger was the best option, and got to work on flushing and working the backage. Amazingly, she succeeded in getting all the rocks down the bend, and was then faced with final hurdle: personal cleanup.

Despite her actions, Mijime could still feel some of the syrup about her backside, some of it still wet, some of it dried and crusty. Looking into the seat of her panties, they were ruined, the syrup having stained the fabric in multiple degrees, with some rocks present in the chocolate.

It was a shame, too, because those had been her absolute favorite pair, a gift from her mother when she had been sober enough to get something worthwhile.

Tears came to Mijime's eyes at her circumstance, and she set about cleaning herself as best she could, and then she washed out her panties as much as possible, picking out the rocks and throwing them in the trash. A few rocks were fine; over a hundred of them would've been grounds for investigation.

Mijime squeezed and rung out her soaking underwear several times, but they were still cold and damp, with a hideous brown stain in the seat. To anyone who looked, it would have been an obvious assumption that she had pooped and then failed to wipe herself.

That wasn't important though. What was important was figuring out what to do with them. She could put them on, and the wetness could soak into her pants, creating the image that she had wet herself, and in addition to that image, it would also be really cold, and she could get a rash. She could throw them away, but then the morning workers would get here and find a pair of panties with a brown stain in them, and ask who had an accident last night, and all the fingers would point to her.

Mijime sniffled again as the weight of her circumstance was felt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following two weeks were laden with class and daycare, and while her bullies didn't do anything too drastic to her besides little things, like pulling her hair, pinching her, making her swallow some of the rocks on the playground, it was still an unending slew of torment that Mijime was slowly and steadily approaching the end of her rope on.

Since the chocolate rocks incident, the worst they had done was a yellow swirly, in which they dragged her into the bathroom, and dunked her head into a toilet that someone hadn't flushed. If no such toilet was available, one of the bullies would do the honors, or they'd make Mijime do it and then dunk her head into her own pee.

Then they left her to clean herself up, and she went the rest of the day smelling like urine.

It was the Friday at the end of the two weeks that Mijime was terrified of. There was another math test, and the bullies had already made it clear that she was to fail, or they'd inflict a punishment so great on her that never pass a test again because she'd be too scared due to the trauma.

Part of her was curious as to what they had in mind, because they had already done some traumatizing things, like chocolate rocks and yellow swirlies. There was also toilet paper, in which the bullies would use the bathroom, and then stuff the nasty toilet paper they used to clean themselves with down into Mijime's pants. There was also rocks, in which they'd just dump a bunch of rocks into her pants, forming a bulge that to anyone looking resembled a messy accident.

Beyond physical torments, they also made her humiliate herself by asking out boys who laughed in her face, or left her fake love notes from people. Their favorite thing to make her do was hound the daycare attendees to be sent to the baby room to receive the full treatment.

The older ladies, the ones who looked after the babies and toddlers, thought she was sincere and found it cute, and were more than happy to oblige. The younger ones who looked after Mijime's age group thought she was screwed in the head and sent her away so they didn't have to deal with her.

Mijime had no friends, and no one to turn to for support.

The math test came, and there was something about her that refused to intentionally fail. She dug her grave by passing with full marks, and come the next Monday, when the tests were graded and passed out, the little sisters of her bullies looked over her shoulder and scowled at the great big 100.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That afternoon, at the daycare, Mijime was cornered under the playhouse by her bullies, and all of them were grinning evilly.

"I warned you, didn't I?"

"Y-Yes, m-mistress."

"Hm, and did you obey me?"

"N-No, mistress."

"That's right, you didn't. You've been doing that a lot, according to my memory. I guess none of our punishment are enough to convince you to obey, so I guess we're going to have to step it up."

The bully nodded, and her two subordinates moved. Mijime put up no fight as she was forced to her back, and her pants and panties stripped from her, yanked down to her ankles, leaving her exposed. That was hardly anything new to Mijime, but she paled nonetheless.

But then she really got scared when the bully produced a test tube.

"I stole this from the science lab," the bully bragged. "It shouldn't be too big for a little virgin like you."

For the first time in her career of putting up with this, Mijime struggled, and she struggled _mightily_. Seemingly, gallons of adrenaline flooded her body, and she knew strength she hadn't ever known before. In reality, it wasn't adrenaline, but chakra. With the stress brought on by the potential act, and her extreme desire to _not_ let that happen, her body had activated her chakra coils.

As these were all civilian-oriented children, their chakra coils were tiny and left neglected as they hadn't ever used them, and that made all the difference right now. While Mijime only had the chakra level of an academy student, maybe enough for a rudimentary Clone, it was still leagues more chakra than her bullies would ever have.

With a shriek, Mijime threw one clean off her and into the wall, where the girl hit her head and was knocked out. Then she hurled the other straight up, and she hit the top of her head clean into roof, and collapsed like a stringless puppet.

Mijime hiked her pants back into place, and glowered like an angry lion at her bully, who was now trembling and had taken a step backward. And suddenly, the positions were reversed. Now Mijime was the powerful one with all the control and authority, and the bully was the little fish, helpless and powerless.

Mijime realized this, and it brought a dangerous smile to her face. This felt _good_. This felt _right_. With her strong mind, and all the suffering she endured, it was only _appropriate_ that she get a little bit of payback.

She took two quick steps forward, her body emboldened by godlike power, and grabbed the bully by the front of her shirt, and yanked her further into the playhouse, more out of sight.

"Pee," Mijime commanded.

"W-What?"

The bully was thrown to the ground.

"That's what _mistress_ , to you, and I told you to pee, as in your pants. Right now."

The bully hesitated, but Mijime glared and stepped forward. The bully squeaked, and steadily, the rocks below her bottom began to darken. Mijime smirked, enjoying the power she now wielded. With not but words, she could command her tormentor.

When it was clear that the bully was done peeing herself, Mijime had another simple order: "Now get on your hands and knees, face the wall, and poop yourself, or I'm going to shove that test tube into you."

The threat was enough, and the bully scrambled into position. She was wearing navy pants, so her wetness wasn't too visible, but no color of pants would hide what came next.

Mijime lost herself in the power-drunk ecstasy as she watched as her bully, her tormentor for so many months, the one that made her endure such terrible things, willingly and obediently made a mess of herself out of fear. It was the greatest feeling Mijime ever experienced, and she never wanted it to stop.

"Now sit on your butt," the no-longer miserable girl ordered.

The bully once again hesitated, but a loud growl had her complying. Mijime hadn't ordered the girl to turn around, but she could just _feel_ the grossed-out expression on the bully's face as she put the full weight of her body onto her butt.

Mijime walked forward and kneeled down so she could whisper in her bully's ear. "All this time, and I don't actually know your name, but from now on it's going to be Stinky Butt, do you understand? Say 'Yes, mistress, my name is now Stinky Butt.'"

The bully stuttered out the command, and Mijime patted her head.

"Good girl. You're going to stay like this for the rest of the day, in your dirty pants, and if any of the workers ask, you're going to tell them you just didn't want to use the bathroom, and then accept whatever they do to you next, whether that's give you a change of clothes or put you in the baby room with the rest of the stinky babies. If you're still in your dirty pants by the time your mommy comes to get you, you're going to tell you just didn't want to go the bathroom…"

Mijime's eyes darkened and the air tinged with malice as her chakra responded to her emotions. "And if you tell anyone about this, about me beating you and your little friends up, I'll come after you and crush you, clear?"

"Y-Y-Y-Yes, m-m-mistress."

"Good job, Stinky Butt. Oh, and get used to this, this new relationship between us. It's how things are going to be from now on."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was like that all the way into two weeks, Mijime using her new strength to command her former bullies. She made them do all the things they made her do; she dunked their heads into pee-filled toilet water; she put nasty toilet paper into their pants; she put rocks up their butts and squirted chocolate syrup all over their insides; she even invented her own torment, in which she took a thing of peanut butter form the kitchen and a plastic knife, and made the former bullies drop their panties so she could spread the peanut butter all over the seats of the fabric.

She made them pull up their clothes and walk around all day with peanut butter between their butts, and the looks of discomfort on their faces were like drugs to Mijime.

However, her absolute favorite was to make them soil themselves. It was the most intoxicating thing to her, to make such an intelligent and refined a creature as a human being, to have such total control over them and their actions, that she can make them throw out all forms of dignity and self-respect and make a mess of themselves like a wild beast. And then make them stew in their waste for hours on end and face the judgement and scrutiny of their peers and authority figures, and the ire and anger of their parents.

She would've had a promising career in the scat and waterpsorts genres of the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water—who've got you covered—if not for the power of money.

Despite Mijime's newfound chakra abilities of increased strength, she was nothing in the face of wealth and humiliated rich brats, one of which figured out how to get handfuls of cash and contact a certain group of noncommittal killers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You've got to me kidding me," Shin'en said into the sound-blocking Seal of his mask.

He was liaisoning for the night, meaning he was the guy that spoke to the contacts to deliver payment, collect payment, and accept contracts. The only contract to come in from this particular contract was one sent by a girl a few years older than him to kill a girl a year younger than him.

Reason wasn't specified, but the money was there and it was all real.

The contact didn't actually hear Shin'en, but he could tell by the body language that the demigod was annoyed with the contract, and he just shrugged. "Hey, kid. Money walks and bullshit talks—wait, no. Reverse that."

The contact looked at his boots in thought. "Money _talks_ and bullshit _walks_. There we go. That's how that saying goes."

He looked up and Shin'en was gone, making him frown.

"I hate it when they do that…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So…we're being contracted by a little girl to kill another little girl?" Bullock asked.

Shin'en unfurled the scroll and read aloud. "'Please kill Mijime Sato for me. She has dark hair in twin tails, dark green eyes, shorter than five feet, and goes to Byakuren Daycare for Friendship and Tolerance. She's a bully.'"

Shin'en furled the scroll and looked onward expectantly.

"Is the money good?" Arashi asked.

"Yep. Counted and valid," Shin'en answered.

Yūrei shared a look, and their leader shrugged. "Suit up. We got a mission to do."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _March 1, 1011 A.S._

Another day at the daycare saw another day of Mijime Sato still enjoying her position. It was a warm March day, with a beautiful blue sky, a few wispy clouds, and a happy sun. Even more good news to the day, Mijime's mother had gotten a legitimate job with legitimate pay, and was now making efforts to disregard the drugs and alcohol.

Everything was looking up.

"Hey there, Stinky Butt," Mijime causally greeted the former bully.

Instead of shaking or replying with a stutter, the girl seemed strangely confident. Mijime would even go so far as to call her arrogant. She didn't like that, for it reminded her of how things had been, and she was not ever going to let things go back to how they had been.

Mijime's eyes narrowed. "Follow me," she ordered.

She led the way to the playhouse. She turned the corner and went in through the door, and stopped cold at seeing the sadistically grinning white mask in the shadows.

"Well, mistress?" the bully behind asked with an evil smile.

She shoved Mijime from behind, and the next thing the miserable girl felt was a cold, sharp bite across her throat, a massive splash of warmth across her front, and suddenly she couldn't get air into her lungs. She didn't have to comprehend what had happened, because there was another feeling from her forehead, and then that was it.

Quick and painless.

Mijime, whose name meant _miserable_ , died.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Great job," the bully praised Shin'en. "You know, I hear scary things about you guys, and my parents even used to tell me stories—"

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Shin'en asked.

The girl blinked. "Sorry?"

"This is one of the oldest stories in the book. Some bullies target a person, the person comes into power and turns the tables, the bullies get angry at their toy breaking away from them, and then they seek to get even. Usually, the bullies are a bunch of rich brats, and the bullied is a no-name smart kid. This whole situation perfectly fits."

The bully adopted a pissed expression. "Yeah, so what? You're just a killer for higher, and you got your money, and you did your job. What do you care, freak?"

Shin'en tilted his head to the side, and suddenly the bully realized how much shit she was in.

She turned to run, but her hair was grabbed from behind, and the last thing she heard was this:

"You smell like ass."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Arashi raised a brow at Shin'en. "You killed the employer. Again."

"Yep."

"Reason…?"

"Didn't want to give her the satisfaction of getting away with her pettiness."

"Did you package the body?"

"Yep."

"Okay then. Yūrei, let's go."

And it was that simple. The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist murdered a nine-year-old girl at the request of a twelve-year-old girl out of pettiness, and Shin'en more or less made it right by killing the twelve-year-old.

It was the first time his future philosophy of killing all to create balance was put into effect.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **No, none of that happened to Persephone. There would be bodies everywhere if that was the case. No, none of that happened to me, if you're wondering if I'm drawing from personal experience. There was a pea gravel-covered playground and a playhouse as described at the daycare I went to, and we did have a Fight Club down there, but the attendees made sure to look in there periodically.**_

 _ **Little bit grungier this chapter, featuring bullying, the psychological effects of it, and power-reversal and its effects. Also brought in the stereotypical rich brat. Had fun killing her.**_

 _ **Also notice how none of the bullies have names or descriptions. It's one of those higher-tier author tricks that English teachers make students write essays about. Don't write me an essays, but do write me Reviews.**_

 _ **Lots of Reviews.**_

 _ **It's also almost the New Year, so if I don't get a new chapter out before then, Happy New Year!**_


	29. The Bad Guys

_The Bad Guys_

 _ **The first chapter of the New Year, ladies and gentlemen.**_

 _ **My resolution is to finish and publish my novel, which, for those that have forgotten, is a retconned version of the Xenophobic arc at the end of**_ **Backup Plan** _ **. I would've finished it the past year, considering I easily wrote over 100k in fanfiction, but I wrote a 100k in fanfiction.**_

 _ **I find myself too dedicated to you guys, and the prospect of going for months at a time without updating any story just…curls my toes.**_

 _ **So my pain is self-inflicted and therefore unworthy of sympathy or pity.**_

 _ **I've been informed that the past chapters have seemed fillerish. Congratulations, Observer, you are correct. These chapters are filler. They are necessary filler, for they paint the picture of Shin'en's actions and story in the Blood War. These filler chapters are part of what made Shin'en what he is in the future.**_

 _ **Anyway.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _March 29, 1011 A.S._

"This is a fourth," Shin'en said through the shared mask feed. "And out of all the things we've done, like killing babies and kids, setting people on fire to send a message, killing people running food pantries, this is easily the worst."

"Well duh, it's the worst," Bullock said. "It's girls. Girls are always the worst."

"Bullock~," Shin'en said with a cross between a scold and a whine, "That's not even fair, and you know it."

"Yeah, Bullock," Sukina said, a smirk in her voice, "girls aren't always the worst missions."

"Name a mission that's worse than one involving girls," Bullock challenged.

"Any that involve talking to you," Yūwaku said snarkily.

"Very funny. You got a real answer, or is ad hominem the only thing you got?"

"That wasn't even an argument. Of course, someone with green hair wouldn't understand the higher tiers of argument."

"Now _that's_ ad hominem," Shin'en said.

Sukina patted his head. "That's right. Never use ad hominem."

"Focus, everyone," Arashi said. "You're getting off track. Sukina, do you have an answer to Bullock's question of which kind of mission is worse than ones involving girls?"

"Well, not really. As I can recall right now, all of our worst missions revolve around girls. Kind of like this one. Girls and slavery go together like peanut butter and chocolate."

Shin'en shuddered slightly. "After that last mission, I don't want to think of peanut butter and chocolate."

"That was some pretty bad stuff," Bullock agreed.

"Yeah," Yūwaku said. "Sicko trains her pet birds to eat only PB&C, and then feeds people tons of the stuff so her birds peck apart the stomach to get to the goodies inside. Original, I think, and really grody."

"Easily top ten grodiest things," said Bullock.

"What's number one?" Shin'en asked curiously.

He got four answers all at once, and it sounded something like this:

"Uglyoptoidcrytuiopus."

Shin'en blinked. "What about an ugly opioid octopus?"

Yūwaku cackled at the question.

Sukina smiled as she answered. "The four of us have different answers on what's number one on the grody list. I think the grodiest thing was these old men who dug up semi-fresh graves and went munting."

"Munting?"

"Munting is when you take a slightly decomposed corpse, and put your mouth to the asshole, while another person jumps on the stomach, making all the juices inside come squirting out. What comes squirting out is called munt," Sukina explained.

Shin'en turned about as white as his mask. "Ew. You people debate that's _not_ the grodiest thing?"

"Yep," Bullock said. "That's Sukina's number one. Mine is this woman who ran a sushi restaurant, and she had this jutsu similar to the Akimichi Clan's Expansion Jutsu, and she used it on these baby octopi. She ran a smuggling ring, and her favorite torture was to have these baby octopi slide up someone's asshole, and then she would use her jutsu to make the octopi supersize on the inside. Sometimes the tentacles would come ripping out at random locations, and sometimes the stomach would just swell up really bad, and the octopus would come sliding out the ass."

"Those poor octopi," Shin'en said. "What's your number one, Arashi?"

"A man smoked too much opium…raped his son…his daughter…his wife…proceeded to kill all three of them…and strangled the dog, the cat, and the bird…and swallowed the fish."

"…that's not really grody," Shin'en said slowly. "That's just morbid."

Arashi shrugged.

"What's your number one, Yūwaku?"

"Oh, that's easy," she said cheerily. "My number one most grody moment was when my son was butchered alive in front of me and the little pieces he was cut into were neatly packaged and shipped for sale on the black market."

"…oh."

Now Shin'en felt bad.

"Aww, don't worry about it, kiddo. Can't change the past, after all."

Shin'en felt _really_ bad.

"So, kid, what's your number one most grody moment?" Bullock asked.

"Um, in my experience, or taking from you guys?"

"Your experience," Arashi answered.

Shin'en thought about it for a little bit. "Um, well~…the peanut butter birds was pretty grody; watching as they pecked through that guy's stomach to get to the peanut butter and chocolate inside was grody. Um, the Walrus Guy was pretty grody; he did skin people and use the skins to make walrus costumes that he would mutilate people into fitting inside of. Uh, when I was training for interrogation in the Cloud, I would get a hammer and crush testicles, and use a power drill on ovaries…that was some grody stuff, I think. But if I had to pick a number one…the grodiest thing would be this dream I had of my mom and the walrus about to have sex."

Shin'en shuddered. "That much fat _moving_ is…blegh!"

Yūrei couldn't help the chuckles at the childish display.

Arashi sobered up quickly. "Alright, you monkeys. Look alive, we're at the drop point."

The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist got serious as they approached their clients. Dozens of samurai were guarding a few sleazy men in suits.

"Ah, you know, I had my doubts about you Yūrei people, but after this…I gotta say, you guys are amazing!" the boss of the exchange said. "I mean, twenty virgin girls all under fifteen in 30 hours—you guys had to do your homework, kidnap them, and then get them all the way out here with potential run-ins with wild animals, angry mobs, and other shinobi! You guys are a bunch of badasses!"

Arashi didn't make a sound as he tugged on the chain, making those aforementioned twenty girls stumble forward. All of them were naked, all of them connected in a series of collars around their necks, their wrists and ankles in shackles, sacks on their heads. They were all clearly cold in the late March night air, and some had dried streams of urine running down their legs from not being able to hold it long enough.

The leader of Yūrei held out an expectant hand, and the boss motioned. A samurai stepped forward with a brief case and opened it, revealing dozens of stacks of cash. Arashi jerked his head and Shin'en came forward.

"Oh-ho! Letting the new blood get some experience, I see. I can't tell, are you a boy or a girl?"

Shin'en's frame, as much as he tried to bulk it up and develop muscle, just stayed slim and lithe, borderline sinewy. It also didn't help that he hadn't hit puberty, and therefore his body was stuck in this androgynous state. He also hadn't cut his hair in literal months, and it had grown long enough to fall past his neck. Honestly, if you didn't know him, you'd have no grey area about him Persephone's twin sister.

Shin'en didn't give the boss an answer, or even an indication of having heard him. He just took out a few stacks of ryō, flipped them to hear how much there was, put the cash back in place, and gave Arashi a nod, shutting the case and taking it.

Arashi handed the chain over to a samurai, and gave the boss a curt nod.

Yūrei vanished from sight in bursts of speed.

And just like that, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist completed their contract of delivering twenty virgin teenagers into prostitution, while also having a casual conversation about grodiness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Manhattan_

 _2004_

Sally was tossing on her side of the bed, sweat marring her brow. She was having a nightmare that had plagued her for years during Persephone's youth, but she hadn't had it since her daughter turned nine, which doubled the effect of the nightmare due to its resurgence.

The mother of one (technically two) found herself before a panel of three faceless judges, all of them wearing black robes with white wigs. To her side was a jury of faceless men and women, and behind her the courtroom was filled with dozens of people that did have faces. That wasn't to say there was a bunch of outfits floating around, no. What Sally meant by faceless was that everyone had hands and heads, and skin colors, it was just that their faces had no features beyond the pointy nose you see in cartoons.

In Sally's arms was a three-year-old Persephone, arms and legs wrapped tight around her, wearing a simple blue play dress.

 _SALLY JACKSON_ , the middle judge intoned with a resounding and hollow voice, _WE HAVE CONFERRED WITH THE JURY AND HAVE DECIDED THAT WE KNOW BETTER THAN YOU ABOUT HOW TO RAISE YOUR OWN CHILD, AND WILL NOW TAKE HER FROM YOU. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!_

" _No!"_ Sally screamed. "You can't do this to me! I know I struggle, but I've met every requirement a parent is supposed to do!"

The faceless police officers approached with their hands splayed, and Sally stepped back, clutching the bawling Persephone tightly. Her back hit the wood, and hands grabbed at her. Sally paled when the onlookers had their hands splayed and were crawling over the pews. Looking over her shoulder, the judges and jurors were also advancing with their fingers splayed like claws.

"NO! NO! GET BACK! YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER FROM ME!"

Sally started swiping and kicking at the encroaching demons, but it was no use. Hands got ahold of her and her daughter, and pulled in two different directions.

"MOMMY, HELP ME!" Persephone wailed.

"Persephone! _Persephone!_ " Sally desperately cried.

She fought through the crowd, but it was no use.

And then a wraith stood from on high, blocking the light of the sun streaming in from the skylight. With glowing red-hot eyes, the wraith broke through the glass with a crash, and descended with cape spread wide, casting a massive shadow over the demons. The wraith crashed down, crushing several beneath him, and then slowly and majestically rose to his full height, towering over all in the courtroom.

The red eyes narrowed, and cast a brief illumination over his face: paper white, with a sadistic grin.

Sally closed her eyes as the carnage ensued. Sounds of ripping and tearing were heard, along with screaming and pleading of mercy, but Sally wanted no mercy for these demons that tried to take away from her, tried to take away her most precious and valuable possession.

In moments, the sounds ended, and a pair of tiny arms encircled her. Sally cracked her eyes open and was relieved to find that it was Persephone, free from the evil clutches and in her embrace once again.

"Oh, my baby, my baby…" Sally muttered through tears.

The wraith stood magnificently above them, blood soaking his black-robed form, red eyes casting a glow over his sadistic grin.

The blood was splattered on him in a way that looked like clouds….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _April 4, 1011 A.S._

"Are we the bad guys?" Shin'en casually asked Arashi.

He was wearing nothing but a pair of compression shorts and a training bra.

The man with the heart-shaped pompadour took a sip of his morning coffee, not bothered at all with Shin'en's strangely working mind. "What have I told you about that?"

"That there are no good guys or bad guys in war, just guys—yeah, yeah, but I'm talking about, like, if we came across a burning building, with people inside, and we weren't on a mission, would we save those people?"

Arashi paused in his sip, looking ahead. "Are we on our way to a mission?"

If he had to guess, Hiyumi or Kimiko was bleeding into the boy's thought processes, making him think a training bra was alright to wear.

Shin'en frowned. "No, no missions, we're just out to get some groceries or something like that, and we see a building on fire. Would we save the people inside?"

"If we're getting groceries, then we're in a public place with a fire department that will handle the blaze."

The demigod pouted and flopped over the table. Arashi saw the Black Lightning tattoo on the shoulder, and the kill counter on the forearm.

1,821.

Since he had arrived in this squad, Shin'en had killed over a thousand people. Yūrei _really_ got around.

The demigod gave Arashi a pointed look. "Stop. Dodging. The question."

The leader of Yūrei took another sip of his coffee. "No. If we came across a burning building, we would not save the people inside."

"Oh," Shin'en said, sounding a little disappointed. "Okay."

He slid off the table and rolled, popping up into a stand. "We got a mission?"

"Yes, but it needs preparation. Mei wants us to investigate a potential superweapon in the town of Umikuro, and either shut it down or take it for the rebellion. Go take a nap."

"Okay."

Shin'en toddled off to his room, humming "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," a tune Arashi didn't recognize.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Hours later_

Yūrei gathered in their meeting room.

"Shin'en," Arashi said, "what did you find?"

The demigod, still wearing a pair of compression shorts and a training bra because his head had been screwed six ways to Sunday and back, uncapped several bottles of water and raised his hands. The water moved and flowed and formed into a replica of a town.

Think holographic imagery seen in sci-fi, but with water instead of lights.

"This is Umikuro," Shin'en said. The water moved and flowed differently, forming a new shape. "This is the facility under Umikuro. Scientists with samurai guard are working on a superweapon."

"The superweapon?" Arashi asked.

"Tailed-Beast chakra."

A cold settled over the room.

"Elaborate," the leader said.

"From what I saw, Yagura's been supplying the facility with chakra from his Three-Tails, and he's been having the Six-Tails Jinchuuriki Utakata also supply his own Tailed-Beast's chakra. The scientists have been trying to synthesize the chakra into a series of explosive tags, and have everything set up inside a containment field of Sealing Jutsu. Looks Uzumaki in origin."

Shin'en flexed his hands throughout his exposition, making the water change shape to add visual to his words.

"Beyond regular access points like doors, I found twenty-four exhaust vents, eight ventilation shafts, and three different plumbing systems, one of which is directly connected to a nearby river."

Arashi crossed his arms, his enormous muscles rolling. You could see in his eyes that his gears were turning. Tailed-Beast chakra was reputably powerful and very unstable; there was a reason the Jinchuuriki were regarded as the nine default most powerful people in the known world. If Yagura was seeking a means to synthesize such chakra and use it for explosive tags, the devastation could be unheard of.

Arashi imagined hundreds of dreaded Tailed-Beast Bombs all compact into pieces of magic paper the size of a foot, small and unnoticeable, placed in hidden locations far away from main targets, yet with a yield powerful enough to hit those targets. Unskilled assassins or would-be demolitionists capable of mass-murder on an unbridled scale. These potential new tags, the destructive power of the fabled Tailed-Beasts contained inside, could very well change the balance of power in the Shinobi World.

And it was Arashi, of all men on the Earth, who now had the power to choose the fate of these new weapons:

Destroy them.

Take them for his team.

Take them for the Rebels.

Take them for sale on the black market.

That last one was a definite no. Not only could the tags end up in the very wrong hands and his team have to get them back, but Yagura had many agents patrolling the market, looking for stolen items, and looking to buy things for the war effort. He could take them obviously, and not report to Mei about it, for what did it matter who had these tags, the Loyalists or the Rebels, for both would use them to slaughter each other. If he had the tags, he could keep them locked up, or put them to effective use, safe and secret for him and team.

Beyond just the tags, however, there was also the scientists and samurai. Kill them, avoid them, or spare them? Same for the townspeople. Slaughter them all overnight, evacuate them, or leave them be? Usually, Arashi wouldn't give thought to details like this, but for a reason neither him nor any other members of Yūrei could explain, Shin'en had entered a new phase, one in which he cared about the lives of non-shinobi and non-mission targets.

One example of this new behavior was that question earlier about the burning building.

It weighed on Arashi's mind for a reason he couldn't fathom. For years he hadn't cared about others in such a way, for he had closed his heart to all but his family in Yūrei, but now that Shin'en was inside, some of his oddities and strangeness was getting inside too, like his sudden concern for being good guys or bad guys on a social level.

Inhaling deeply and exhaling deeply, Arashi put his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Here's the plan…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Getting in was easy. Finding the security room was easy. Knocking out the guards on duty was easy. Rigging the cameras had been easy. It was going to be just as easy to set off the fire alarm and have everyone evacuating topside, but it got concerning when the evac alarm went off on its own, and it was clear why:

Meltdown.

Yūrei should've left right then, abandoning the mission and the people to the impending disaster. Shin'en went speeding for the synthesis chamber, telling his family to assist in evacuating the civilians and scientists. Against their better judgment, Yūrei went right along with that plan.

Shin'en sped through the corridors, the sirens and spinning red lights irritating him. He came to a stop in front of a set of thick metal doors, the doors to the observation room above the synthesis chamber. They were sealed shut, and he could sense the people inside, panicking.

Shin'en struck the doors, ramming his fingers through the seams. With an exhale, he pried them apart, sparks erupting in protest at his strength. The scientists inside were all standing there stunned at seeing the pint-sized person in the black outfit. The tell-tale grinning white mask, however…

"Yūrei! She's here to kill us!" someone screamed.

Then they all started screaming.

Shin'en tilted his head, and his further inaction lead to the screaming dying off and the sounds of the alarms to become the only sounds. Until there was a deep humming and a bright light that came from the other side of the observation room.

"It's about to blow!" someone yelled.

That was enough for a mass scramble to the door, and all the scientists except one made a bee line for the nearest exit. That one scientist shook his head, and looked down at Shin'en.

"So, what happened?" the demigod asked.

"Oh, the usual. Kidnapped against our will, forced to work for a tyrant, unstable energy that's finally gone critical…the usual. We had a containment field set up, a Sealing array that was actively powered by the chakra of a rotating cast of samurai, but the tags went screwy, and in order to maintain homeostasis, the array sucked the chakra right out of the poor bastards. However, with no further chakra to supply the area, it's all come undone. Running away isn't going to help. The amount of power that's about to be unleashed will blow everything in a twenty-mile radius to kingdom come." The scientist put a hand to his chin in thought.

"Or was it a twenty-thousand-mile radius?" he shrugged. "It's got a two and a zero at the end of it, I remember that for sure."

"Is there any way to stop it from overloading, or shorten the blast radius?" Shin'en asked.

The scientist raised a brow. "Why do you care, Yūrei? I doubt you're here to save us, because there's no way you could've known about the meltdown, and considering your occupation, I'd wager you're here to steal the tags or kill everyone that was here, so why are you worried about the blast radius instead of running away as fast as you can go?"

"Superman," Shin'en said.

"…who?"

"A good person that my big sister wants to be like when she grows up."

The scientist stared blankly down at Shin'en. "I'm not going to try to figure that one out. Well, if you're so hung up on being some kind of hero, the room where the samurai worked out of is right below us, but I warn you, kid: it took ten powerful samurai at all times to power the Containment Seal."

"Perfect. This'll be easy then."

"Whatever you say, kid. Me? I'm going to go to the bathroom and beat my meat one last time."

The scientist walked away to do just that, and Shin'en frowned. "Didn't need to know that…"

He punched a hole through the ground and descended, then ripped away the door to the room described. It was a very simple place, with Door A that Shin'en just ripped off, and Door B at the opposite side of the room. There were lights above, along with sprinklers in case of fire, and there were ten consoles evenly spaced along the left wall, each of them having two small pylons sticking up. There was an observational window, blinding light streaming from the other side as the Sealing array and the explosive notes were both going critical.

Shin'en could feel his family evacuating all that they could as fast as they could.

"Just like the Justice League," the demigod muttered with a proud little smile.

His most recent dream of his sister involved her watching the animated show and declaring how she wanted to be just like them when she grew up. It inspired Shin'en's impressionable mind.

Her went to the nearest set of pylons and grabbed them. Immediately did he feel the massive drain on his chakra as the Sealing array began to power up and match the destabilizing explosive tags.

The light got brighter and brighter, the humming got louder and louder, the facility began to crumble and collapse from the seismic vibrations, and the array kept sucking out Shin'en's chakra like a greedy whore.

The demigod started glowing just as he started to scream. It started low, more like a growl, and proceeded to get louder and louder as more chakra was put into the Sealing array, as more Tailed-Beast chakra started to unravel and glow, ready to explode.

Soon, Shin'en was putting out so much energy that he glowed even brighter than the other side of the glass, and the roar coming from him was just as loud as the destructive orchestra thundering to its crescendo.

And then finally…the Seal couldn't keep up with the volatile chakra of the Three and Six-Tails, and everything went white.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūrei had done a magnificent job in getting everyone out, and when they heard the mighty rumble warning of an impending catastrophe, they threw up protective Earth jutsu and Sealing jutsu. Not a moment too soon, as the whole of Umikuro went up in flame and smoke and thunder.

A mushroom cloud towered into the night sky, its fire bringing false light to the world. Yūrei lowered the shields, and everyone beheld the destructively beautiful sight. While the civilians were awestruck at the fire and smoke and sorrowful for the loss of their homes and grateful to be alive, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist were all having internal panic attacks.

The feed from Shin'en's mask was down, and demigod or not, a blast like that…surviving it…

Inexplicably, Shin'en's feed popped right back up, and he was looking at the mushroom cloud from the same exact angle as the rest of them. As one, Yūrei slowly turned their heads to their right, and saw Shin'en casually sitting there, legs dangling off the edge of the cliff.

"Hey, guys," he chirped.

"…how though?" Bullock asked, finding his voice first.

"'As the Log takes your place, you become the Log, and the Log becomes you. For a moment, you are an extension of the Log's blessing unto ninja.' Book of the Log, Chronicle of the Replacement, Verse 3."

Sukina whacked him very hard over the head. "If you ever quote that ridiculous Book of the Log bullshit to me again, I will shove a log up your tiny little ass."

"No promises," Shin'en grinned under his mask. "And you guys saved everyone, awesome!" He looked at Arashi. "See, we are the good guys!"

Of course, to the onlookers, who couldn't hear what was being said due to the masks, were treated to the spectacle of prolonged silent staring followed by physical abuse followed by more prolonged staring. And of course, even in the face of their life being saved, there was always _that guy_ who had to be _**that guy**_ **.**

That guy shoved his way forward. "Murderers! I know who you people are, you guys are Yūrei, the mercenaries for hire!"

Whispers and murmurs broke out among the crowd, and the air started to change.

But since Yūrei was Yūrei, and the only reason they bothered with a rescue operation was because of Shin'en, and the operation was completed, and they cared nothing at all for people's opinions of them, and had literally no need for arguments about public image, and didn't feel like going on a killing spree as it would undermine their supreme efforts…the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist just vanished from sight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at their base, Arashi passed out the shot glasses and the sake, filling everyone's glass. Putting away the bottle, he toasted. "To the dead."

Yūrei raised their glasses. "And to the next man to die."

They drank to that, and it was good.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I thought this would be out later, but I came into a lot more free time than I thought, and my muse is singing to me right now. I have had a lot of time to think about missions for this story.**_

 _ **Speaking of, relax. The plot will thicken, I promise. Right now, I'm just filling in the gaps with fun little side stories.**_

 _ **Speaking further of side stories, I just finished watching both seasons of**_ **Young Justice** _ **with my dad, and I'm having passing fantasies of a non-canon crossover with Yūrei and the side-kicks—I mean, young heroes. You kinda saw a little bit of it with Shin'en recalling how he had a dream of his sister watching Bruce Timm's**_ **Justice League** _ **.**_

 _ **Thoughts?**_

 _ **If it's too bad an idea, I already have the next chapter planned out.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, Review, and Happy New Year!**_


	30. Yurei and Young Justice: Pt 1

_Y_ _ū_ _rei and Young Justice: Pt. 1_

 _ **If you read the title then you know what's coming. I counted the Reviews, and those that had an opinion mostly said go for it, so here we go.**_

 _ **Crack, mostly, not to be taken too seriously, and non-canon, meaning it doesn't actually happen. More for fun than anything.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto, PJO, or Young Justice

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _In the bowels of Cadmus_

Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash were shocked to see the young man in the pod that looked strikingly like Superman. They were doubly shocked to see the corresponding shield on the young man's chest.

"Robin," Aqualad said shortly.

"Right, on it."

The Boy Wonder moved to hack the systems, but a shuriken went flying past him, burying into the computer, causing it to spark and hiss. The three heroes all turned around and saw—

"Is that a little girl?" Wally exclaimed.

"Could be another Cadmus project," Robin warned.

The potential Cadmus project was shorter than Robin, and her hair was reaching down past her neck. She was dressed in an all-black ensemble. Boots, pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a vest over the shirt, and gloves. Over her face was a white mask, a savage grin painted along the bottom, and designs over the eyes. Over the right eye were three diagonal bars angled down towards the nose, and over the left eye was a crescent opening up, a line running down the middle.

"I…do not think that's a girl," Aqualad said after a moment of inaction.

"Dude, look at the frame, and the hair-length!" Wally said.

"Having a slim body and long hair does not make one female."

"Whatever gender they are, they don't seem like they want to fight," Robin observed.

The person suddenly raised their finger, and the boys tensed, but all that finger did was point behind them. Hearing grunts, the boys slowly turned their heads, and saw that the pod around Project Kr was down, and the person inside was waking up, and not happy. Those blue eyes zeroed in on Robin, and with a roar, Superboy was on the attack.

He sailed forward with a raised fist, and Robin rolled away. The clone crashed down and broke the floor.

"Hey, man!" Wally tried. "We're on your side!"

Superboy grabbed him by the front of his uniform and threw him into a wall. His eyes locked onto the fast approaching Aqualad, whose water-bearers were bearing a couple of maces, and took two shots upside his head with grunt. Aqualad swung his arms back around, but Superboy raised his arm and the magically infused water broke against the hardened skin.

Superboy snapped out with his other fist and decked Aqualad right in the face, sending the Atlantean warrior flying into the wall opposite the chamber with a crash, blood trailing from his nose. Aqualad fell to the ground, and didn't get up.

A streak of red and yellow crossed Superboy's vision, and he looked down at his chest were a number of blinking yellow pellets had been placed. His eyes widened, and then he exploded. Robin and Kid Flash had narrow eyes aimed at the smoke cloud, and both tensed when Superboy came stomping out, his suit singed.

That was the only damage visible.

"This guy is so not whelmed," Robin muttered.

"Dude, what is it with you and this whelmed thing?"

"Just something I've been thinking about. I'm also thinking we're in trouble."

Superboy launched himself forward with a cry, and both heroes dodged away.

"What was your first clue!?" Wally shouted.

"Just shut up and fight!"

Kid Flash ran in, attempting to execute a simple hit-and-run strategy using his superspeed to land hard hits and get away, but Superboy proved just how much Superman was in him, because he whipped around just as Wally got close, and close-lined the speedster. Kid Flash went skidding across the ground on his back, out like a light after that blow.

Robin swallowed, mentally reviewing all the tactics Batman had taught him for engaging people with super strength. Keep your distance, avoid punches, use explosives, use smokescreens, use the environment, play dead, anesthetic gas also was useful. Robin checked the part of his utility belt where such knock-out pellets would reside, and found that he was fresh out.

"If this guy doesn't kill me, Batman will for not resupplying," Robin muttered.

The Boy Wonder saw how Aqualad and Kid Flash were down, the mystery mask person was no where to be seen, and while the tactics for super strong people were effective, as seen with Bane and other enhanced people, this guy wasn't just super strong.

He was Kryptonian.

An idea formed in Robin's head, and he threw down a smoke pellet, making him vanish from sight. Superboy's eyes widened, and he got pissed off. He charged forward into the smoke cloud with a roar, swiping his arms to clear out the obscurity, only to find Robin was already gone.

Superboy growled.

Something impacted the ground between his feet, and more smoke erupted, making him growl even more and grind his teeth together. He brought his arms back and slammed his hands together, the resulting soundwave having enough power in it to dispel the smoke screen. He narrowed his eyes when he saw Robin on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

Since the G-Gnomes had telepathically taught him about some of the tactics displayed by the Dynamic Duo, Superboy did not approach based on instincts of caution. It was the first display of higher intelligence yet. Instead, he focused on his enhanced sense of hearing, and listened to Robin's heartbeat.

Steady and slow. Strong indicators of true unconsciousness.

Then Superboy experienced several rapid strikes to key places on his back, the impacts resulting in a sound like detonating fireworks, and suddenly not only could he not move, he had no balance. Superboy fell to his back, paralyzed.

Standing over him was one of the Cadmus security detail, the one with the orange hair. The finger tips of her pointer and middle were glowing with a strange, fire-like blue energy. Superboy grunted and tried to move, but his body wasn't responding.

"Don't bother," he heard her say. "I struck your nerve bundles. You won't be moving for a while. If you were a normal person, I'd give it a day before movement returns. For you, maybe a few hours. Got a hand it you, though; I've struck Jonin like that before and my fingers hurt less."

Superboy didn't know what a Jonin was, but he could feel the compliment, and he couldn't decide between being angry or being pleased. He decided on being… _angleased_.

Someone poked his cheek, and he turned an irritated look to the person, and saw that it was the little security person.

"Are you a good guy?"

"Wha-?" Superboy tried talking, but found his throat wasn't working. These were his first words, after all. He swallowed, worked his mouth a little bit, and then tried again. "Wha… _what_ are…what are talking about?"

The little one tapped the S-shield. "That's for Superman, and he's a good guy, so you're wearing a good guy's symbol, but you kicked the butts of the other good guys. So, are you a good guy?"

Superboy wasn't entirely sure what in the hell any of that meant, so he went with what he thought sounded good. "I am the clone of Superman, made to take his place if he ever turned from the light."

"So you are a good guy," the little one nodded. "Then you have to help them get out of here."

He pointed to the unconscious Robin, Aqualad, and Kid Flash.

Superboy was confused. "Why?"

"Well, you said you're supposed to be like Superman, right? Well, if Superman were here, he'd save them, and since you want to be like Superman, you have to save them too."

Superboy's thought processes stopped, and then rebooted. "Okay," was his response.

"Kay, here you go!"

The little one held something like an herb to Superboy's nose, and suddenly he could move again. He watched the little one run over to the sidekicks and wave the same herb under their noses, making them all stir awake.

"Ow," Kid Flash groaned. "Feels like someone hit me with a cinderblock…"

He caught sight of Superboy, and adrenaline flooded his system, destroying all traces of drowsiness and fatigue. He shot to his feet in a blur, hands up for a fight, but relaxed slightly when he detected no hostility from Superboy.

The other two young heroes also got to their feet, and they both saw how disarmed Superboy appeared to be, and how…lost…he also looked. He was staring at empty space behind the trio, and they turned around to see nothing there.

"What now?" Robin asked.

The question was enough to prompt Superboy back into focus. "Now we escape."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The quartet of heroes ran through the halls of Cadmus, taking out groups of Genomorphs around almost every corner. Some time during all the fighting, Kid Flash managed to find the time to ask:

"So, why are you helping us now instead of fighting us? Not that I'm complaining or anything, it's just that—"

"It's what Superman would do," was the crisp response.

Wally was confused but satisfied with the answer.

Anyway, the group was eventually cornered by Dr. Desmond and a battalion of Genomorphs. The doctor had a little vile in his hand.

"Project Blockbuster will give me the power I need to restore order to Cadmus."

Desmond popped the cap and drank the liquid, and proceeded to transform into a monstrous blue-skinned thing. Guardian, another hero, attempted to fight, but was knocked aside and knocked unconscious with a single blow. With a roar, Superboy tried his fist, and was punched to the ground.

Undeterred, he sprang up and landed a blow, before being punched to the side, skidding across the floor. Still barely phased, he leapt for another attack, and the Blockbuster creature sprang into the air to intercept, bringing with him enough force to go shooting through the ceiling to the lobby above.

"That's one way to do it," Robin observed. "Think he planned that?"

"I doubt he is planning anything anymore," Aqualad said gravely.

The Boy Wonder fired his grappling hook, grabbed Kid Flash, and went up, and the Atlantean jumped after them. Topside, they found Superboy and Blockbuster knocking each other around. They dove into the fight, each trying their strategies and tactics, using what they had learned from their years of fighting crime in conjunction with each other, but Blockbuster remained largely undeterred by each attack.

Robin got tossed aside with a cry, and landed so hard his wind got knocked out. There was a primal moment of panic at not being able to breathe, but his mental fortitude kicked in the next moment, and he got control of himself, relaxing until his diaphragm unlocked. Using the moment, he examined the situation.

Kid Flash had the speed, but not the strength.

Superboy had strength, but not enough.

Aqualad had his magic and physical abilities, but Blockbuster was tanking them.

Robin himself had the mind—or so he thought—to come up with a coordinated strike, but so far his ideas were being met with overwhelming force. Robin activated his hologram computer, looking for structural weaknesses, a new idea forming in his head regarding bringing down the building on top of Blockbuster's head.

See, the thing was, the hologram had this nifty little rear-view type thing going on with it, so that Robin had eyes behind him as it was too easy to get so focused in on the screen that he forgot to worry about his rear. Because of this feature, he was able to see the black-garbed kid from earlier standing right behind him as if a blue-skinned monster wasn't trashing the place by tossing an Atlantean, a Superman clone, and a running McDonald's sign all over the place.

Robin slowly turned around, working his gloves to where smoke pellets discretly slid into his palms. "Hi," he said hesitantly.

The little person waved as if greeting a friend.

"Are you going to, um… _help_ …in any way?"

A single, strong nod.

"…how~…?" Robin prompted, as it was clear he wasn't getting a more elaborate response.

What he got was a fist firmly planted into the opposite palm.

"Uh," Robin started.

A loud bam from elsewhere made him whip around to investigate, and he saw Superboy get punched through a support pillar. He turned back around, saw the little one was gone, turned around again to see the little one standing at equal height to Blockbuster's bellybutton, and liked to have a panic attack.

Blockbuster, after having noticed the little thing standing before him, and having all the higher mental function of a toaster, lashed out with his leg like he was punting a football. He missed, as his target stepped to the side where his (Blockbuster's) leg was firmly planted, reared back his little fist, and thrusted it forward.

Blockbuster howled as the entire bone structure crumpled inward, his leg literally bending under the force of the blow. He fell, yelling, gripping his leg, the bones so broken they had ripped through his skin, letting blood flow everywhere. His yowls subsided into agonized grunts as adrenaline and endorphins kicked in, and rage overcame his other emotions. With a roar, Blockbuster straightened his leg out, a nauseating crunch accompanying the action, and he waited for ten seconds as everything mended itself.

When his leg healed, he got back to his feet and gingerly put weight down, and limped a bit before the pain completely subsided. If his brains hadn't all gone to his muscles, he might've found it odd that he was allowed so much time to heal and then walk the pain off. As it was, Blockbuster whirled around, roaring at the first thing he saw.

Robin just grinned and pointed. Blockbuster followed the finger, and saw a little blinking light. Then he saw another light, and another light, and several more still. As dumb as he now was, he could still recognize explosive charges.

He looked to the side and saw the little black-clothed menace give a jovial wave, before everything erupted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The rubble of Cadmus shifted, and Superboy stood tall, throwing aside a several-hundred-pound chunk of concrete aside. Around him, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Robin stood up.

"Ta-da!" Wally announced. "See, the moon!"

Superboy looked up at the silver satellite, and his eyes saw something else too. Squinting, his optics went telescopic, and his heartbeat changed.

Descending from the heavens was Superman himself.

And also the rest of the Justice League.

The quartet found themselves under the scrutiny of the most powerful beings on the planet, and all of them could feel just how much trouble they were practically in. Swallowing and steeling himself, Superboy stepped forward and revealed his shield.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the look he got from Superman absolutely crushed him on the inside, and so he masked his hurt with anger.

Before anything else could happen, Batman took total control of everything with two words.

"Start talking."

And then talking commenced.

At the end of it, Superboy summed up everything quite nicely:

"Either get on board, or get out of the way."

Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad gave their mentors pointed, unyielding looks, and said mentors suddenly felt like tremendous weight was upon them all as they were faced with a decision. In the silence that punctuated this pause, Robin suddenly remembered something.

"The kid!"

The whole League was thrown for a loop.

"Uh, what kid?" Flash asked.

"The kid that helped us! Wally, Kaldur, Superboy, you remember? Little guy, black clothes, white mask, long hair…"

Their eyes widened as their synapses started firing again, and they did remember.

Flash was about to ask his question again, but Batman opened his mouth faster, and with infinitely more authority.

"What. Kid?"

"Cadmus security detail," Superboy answered, the G-Gnomes having given him information regarding 'the kid.' "One of five superhumans of unknown origin and identity. Strengths largely unknown. Weaknesses largely unknown. What is known is that all of them wear uniforms of black and grinning white masks with varying patterns over their eyes. They have all been shown to have usual superhuman abilities of increased strength, speed, stamina, and senses."

"I'll say superhuman strength," Kid Flash said. "Little dude hit Blockbuster here once in the side of the knee and almost blew the entire leg off at the joint, while all of us were getting our butts kicked."

Batman's eyes narrowed behind his cowl.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In an unknown location, Arashi stood in a dark room surrounded by holograms of indistinct silhouettes, all of them emitting bright light.

" _What happened tonight?"_ a voice rumbled.

"The baby wanted to help the heroes," Arashi said simply, "and so we let him help the heroes."

" _And in doing so you cost us Cadmus, Dr. Desmond, and the Superboy,"_ a different voice accused.

Arashi was not phased. "And? You all seem to be forgetting one key thing to our contract: Yūrei operates how _I_ see fit, and I have seen fit to allow the baby control for the time being. He wanted to help you people out, and so we have. You wanted us in Cadmus, so we went. There, we found the Genomorph city, killed Dubbilex, and assisted Guardian with whatever he needed. Then the baby wanted to help the heroes, and so we let him. If he wants to go to the zoo, we'll take him; if he wants to blow up the moon, we'll help him; if he wants to hunt each of you down, we'll do that; if he wants to lay waste to the Justice League, we'll go all out and change the maps. Right now, consider yourselves lucky the baby still wants to be on your side."

" _Your allowance of your youngest member is a liability. The whims of a child cannot be trusted."_

"Careful," Arashi warned. "I might be letting the baby take the reigns, but I can take them back any time I want. Do not test me."

" _Enough,"_ the first voice said. _"Y_ _ūrei, we are arranging for our friends in the Cult of Kobra to take over the island of Santa Prisca to use Bane's Venom formula in production with the Blockbuster formula. Assist as needed."_

Arashi nodded once and left. Once gone, the Light had their conversation.

" _They're too dangerous,"_ Ocean Master said. _"They cannot be controlled and are too spirited. They will come to cross us in time."_

" _And by that time,"_ Vandal Savage started, _"we will have acquired means to neutralize them. They will come to see the light eventually."_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Psh, yeah right.**_

 _ **Like it or not, this is happening, and I'm just having fun with it. Trust me though, this will be the last fun thing for a bit, so enjoy it. After this little side arc, it's back to the grunge.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	31. Yurei and Young Justice: Pt 2

_Y_ _ūrei and Young Justice: Pt. 2_

 _ **The fun continues. Glad mostly everyone is onboard with the idea.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto, PJO, or Young Justice

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Santa Prisca_

Bane was not happy about his territory being muscled in on like it had been, and he had been faced with the decision of putting up a fight against the obviously much larger and much more equipped invading force, and lose countless loyal soldiers, or surrender and wait for the opportunity to take back his island.

He chose the latter.

Of course, the five individuals in the black clothes and white masks were great incentive as well.

In light of all this, Bane was also confused as to why these Kobra nuts were giving him his Venom injector.

"Lord Kobra wants to see you at your best for this event," the goon said with a sly smile, speaking in Spanish.

"My best, huh?" Bane responded, also in Spanish. He equipped his cursed injector, putting the tube to the back of his head, and activated it. His pupils dilated, nearly overtaking his iris, and his muscles began to swell as a rush of pleasure and power surged through him.

"As you wish," the man who broke the Bat growled.

He raised a brow when his apparent opponent entered the loading area, the chosen arena for this event. The young man was a spindly thing, built more like a stick than anything else. Other than his anorexic build, the only other thing notable about him was his orange hair. However, years of experience taught Bane not to take anyone lightly, and so he mentally buckled down and got ready.

The girl behind the boy, also with orange hair, telling Bane she was perhaps a sister, injected the boy with something, and he immediately started convulsing…and changing. In seconds, Bane was facing down a hulking mammoth of a man, ten feet tall and with muscles so big they were literally splitting his now-dark green skin apart.

In that moment, Bane defeated himself. With his years of experience, he most likely could've formulated a strategy to take this guy down, but he allowed himself to dwell too much on how big his opponent had become, and seeing that made him doubt his ability. Bane lost the mental battle, and therefore the physical one was quick to follow.

In short, he got his ass handed to him in thirty seconds flat.

In lieu of Mammoth's victory, one Cultists started chanting.

"Hail Kobra…hail Kobra…"

Soon, the entire congregation was chanting the same thing, making their leader cross his arms with a superior smirk.

Meanwhile, Yūrei was also present, and standing by on the catwalks. About five seconds after the chanting started, Shin'en thrust his fists out in front of him.

"Hail Hydra!"

The other four Ghosts shared a look and shrugged, before thrusting their fists out as well and chanting the same thing. Not that anyone heard them due to their masks keeping their voices to themselves.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _A little bit later_

Yūrei was casually overseeing the manufacture of more "Kobra-Venom," as it was being called, when Shin'en felt some things go curvy elsewhere on the island.

" _Report,"_ Arashi intoned.

"Good guys are here."

" _Oh. Go have fun and play nice with the other kids."_

"Okay!" Shin'en chirped, before turning into water vapor.

" _He's a good kid,"_ Sukina commented.

" _A good kid that burned down an entire apartment complex full of people in the middle of the night to serve as a distraction while we raided the local mayor's office for blackmail,"_ Arashi responded.

" _Yep, a good kid."_

Yūrei had a strange dynamic going on between them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Team was trekking through the jungle, when Superboy's hearing picked up sounds. Using his infrared vision, he saw two groups approaching one another. He also saw something else, and it was that something else that grabbed his full attention. Through the telepathic link with the rest of the Team, they also had their attention grabbed.

It was the little one from Cadmus, casually hanging down from a tree branch.

"Hey, it's you!" Robin said.

Miss Martian was a little lost. "Uh, who is this?"

Aqualad explained. "When we rescued Superboy from Cadmus, and engaged Blockbuster, this one helped us defeat the monster. He brought Blockbuster down with a single blow to the leg, a blow powerful enough to blow the knee out entirely."

"Oh," was the Martian girl's response.

"So…are you here to help us again, or are we going to fight?" Kid Flash asked.

"Don't wanna fight the good guys."

The Team was thrown.

"Oh my God, you do talk," Wally said distantly.

"Um, yeah, of course I talk. Call me Ghost."

"Alright, _Ghost_ ," Robin said. "Do you know…what's going on here, exactly?"

"The Cult of Kobra deposed Bane's cartel and are using the Venom manufacturing facility to make a new steroid called Kobra-Venom, a combo of regular Venom and Cadmus' Blockbuster juice."

Robin's mind went into overdrive. "That implies that Kobra and Cadmus are—or were—working together….Do you know what Kobra-Venom does?"

"It makes you really big and stupid, and you can't change back."

"You are just a trove of helpfulness," Kid Flash said. "Why can't more people like you be in our lives?"

Ghost shrugged, a funny thing considering he was hanging upside down.

"Are the others here?" Superboy asked. "The other four, I mean."

"Yep."

"What are _you_ doing here?" Aqualad asked. "Superboy tells us that you and the others were security detail for Cadmus, yet none of you had G-Gnomes telepathically controlling you, meaning all that you did was of your own free will. I apologize for being suspicious, but you helped us against Blockbuster and are now helping us again, yet all indicators point to you working for the enemy, and you know what they say about things being too good…"

"No, I am working for the bad guys." The Team tensed. "But we're like, self-styled double agents. We get intel from them, and then give it to you."

"Why?" Robin asked.

"Because that's what the good guys do," Ghost said matter-of-factly. "And my big sister wants me to be like the good guys, so I'm doing that."

"You have a big sister?" Kid Flash asked incredulously. Then his hormones kicked in. "Is she available?"

"She's my twin."

Kid Flash almost fell down. "O-Oh, sorry. Wait, how old are you?"

"Ten. I'll be eleven in a few days."

Now Wally felt dirty. Very, very dirty. He felt so dirty he actually shuddered.

An awkward silence almost ensued, but Superboy spoke. "Okay, everyone's been wondering this, but are a boy or a girl?"

"…I don't know," Ghost said after a moment.

"Dude, what?" Kid Flash asked.

"Well, I have multiple personalities, three of them, and two are girls, and I can turn into a girl, with fully functional equipment, too—don't ask, it's a divine thing—and so I don't really know."

The Team didn't know what to make of any of that.

"Wait— _divine_? As in the gods?" Aqualad asked.

"Poseidon's my dad, so yeah."

"Oh," the Atlantean sounded terrified of the prospect, and the rest of the Team was shocked. A demigod was before them. Wonder Woman was also a demigod, the daughter of Zeus, and if she was anything to go by, then Ghost was someone that _really_ needed to be exercised caution with.

"You said you helped the good guys," Robin prompted. "We could use a little more help. You said Kobra muscled in and took Bane's turf, making a new steroid called Kobra-Venom, which is Venom mixed with Cadmus Blockbuster formula. How did Kobra get a hold of Cadmus' stuff?"

"Kobra is working with the same people who ran Cadmus."

"And those people would be…?"

"The Light."

"The who?"

"That's a band."

Robin deadpanned, and Ghost giggled. Kid Flash was trying to hide his snorts behind his hand.

"Who is the Light?" Aqualad asked.

"A group of supervillains who want world domination. The usual."

Robin exhaled, Kid Flash openly groaned, and Aqualad seemed annoyed.

Miss Martian was confused. "Uh, I take it a lot of Earth's villains try to take over the world?"

"Seems like there's some new guy every week," Robin sighed.

"There's always _someone_ trying to take over the world," Wally grumbled. "Why can't all these supervillains work to saving the world instead of trying to take it over? Like, what are they even going to do, levy taxes?"

"Regardless of what anybody would do while in control of the planet," Aqualad said, "it's our job to make sure she stays free and out of anyone's controlling hands."

Ghost tilted his head to the side and at that statement. "What if the someone trying to take over the world is trying to do it so they have absolute authority to distribute money and resources where needed, with no opposition from politicians, corporations, or militaries, ending poverty, starvation, and crime?"

The Team shared a look, none of them having an answer. Even telepathically linked, and conversing rapidly with their heads, they still weren't getting anywhere close to a reasonable answer. Ghost continued to dangle upside from the tree branch, waiting for an answer. However, he still did have ADHD, and waiting for an answer got old in three seconds flat, so he directed his attention to a lizard crawling up the side of a nearby tree.

The Team's debate came to an end when gunshots sounded in the distance, making them all tense and alert.

"Oh, Kobra's and Bane's guys must've met," Ghost said. "They're killing each other."

"Everybody move!" Aqualad commanded.

"Why?"

Ghost's question cut through the fervent movement like an icepick through glass.

The child continued. "Why are you moving? What are you going to do?"

"It is our job as the good guys to prevent all loss of life that we can," Kaldur said.

Ghost seemed to just stare at him for a long time. Meanwhile, the gunshots continued in the distance. Then…

"I don't understand."

…the air changed.

It's a strange ability humans have, the ability to detect subtle changes in the ambient atmosphere when someone's emotions switched. Examples being something gets said, or something gets done, and someone changes, becoming serious and vexed. A theory to this is electricity.

Humans gave off electric fields due to way in which the brain commanded the body, with electrical signals. The theory was that a person's emotional state was reflected by their electric field, which could explain why some people were more intuitive than others, as they picked up on the signals better. So, when a person's emotions changed, their electric field changed, and this change was felt by the other electric fields generated by other people present in the room, which was how "changes in the air" were felt.

Right now, the Team was picking up confusion from Ghost, confusion that bordered on hostility.

Children were notoriously temperamental creatures. One second they could be running around the house, and the next they could be passed out on the floor somewhere. They could be perfectly fine, and then go into a raging tantrum, and vice versa. Robin suspected that Ghost's notion of what a "good guy" was differed from the commonly accepted idea, and he believed that a good guy was supposed to worry about saving other good guys and stopping the commonly accepted idea of what a "bad guy" was.

As such, seeing a bunch of good guys about to go stop a bunch of bad guys from killing each other didn't compute, and, through childlike thought processes, made Ghost upset and ready to snap due to frustration that came with not being able to grasp something, both physically and metaphorically.

"You said you prevent all loss of life that you can, but if the life you save costs the lives of lots more, doesn't it make more sense to let the other person die, so that many more live? Wouldn't stopping Bane's men from killing Kobra's men, and the other way around, allow them all to continue working for their bosses in an industry in which they kill innocent people? Wouldn't that be counterproductive to your mandate, when the alternative is to let them kill each other off and thin the number of bad guys you all have to worry about?" Ghost asked.

And there it was, the quintessential question that made people form protests, rallies, marches, mobs, and vandals against the Justice League. Despite how much good they did, how many lives they rescued, how many cities they saved, despite the numerous occasions in which they saved the world from total destruction or subjugation, there was always someone that got hurt, lots of times fatally, and the families they left behind were left morning, bitter, and angry, with no better outlet than the Justice League.

There was even an entire group dedicated to slandering and hating the League, and they called themselves the People Against the League.

They were a rather stupid hate group, considering their acronym was PAL, but it doesn't matter how stupid a group is, or what they stand for, because under the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution, they were allowed to say what they would and petition how they pleased—until things got violent and they broke the law—without fear of prosecution, and despite how much the League really didn't like a bunch of people throwing produce at them and their likenesses, doing anything against them would just be bad.

Ah, politics.

The driving force behind every problem in the world as we know it.

However, back to the subject matter at hand:

Robin stepped forward, having been with Batman for so many years—and no other hero was centered more around this question than Batman—and therefore had experience with such a question, and knew how to answer it.

"No, it wouldn't be counterproductive. Every life we save is a life that can go to something greater. People can change, and they can all see the error of their ways, and turn away to the good. They can reform. And even if they don't, if they still want to be the bad guys, then that's why we're here, to stop them and whatever they're planning. Further, it's not our place to levy a death penalty, and even if it was, we'd never use it."

Robin's mask became the center of focus.

"If you kill a killer, the number of killers stays the same."

Ghost tilted his head to the other side. "Not if you, like, kill a lot of killers. I mean, if you went to a prison full of killers, and killed all of them yourself, then there'd be, like, I don't know, _that_ many killers not in the world anymore."

"Dude," Kid Flash said to Robin, "I'm not on board with the whole killing thing, but even I can admit that what you said was just dumb."

"Well, that's what Batman taught me, so _mmh_!" the Boy Wonder stuck his tongue out.

Before this could get anymore weird, Ghost dropped from the tree. "Gunshots stopped, guess you got too sidekicked to notice. Oh, and some guy called Sportsmaster is due to arrive to collect a shipment of Kobra-Venom, and me and family are supposed to make sure everything goes down smoothly, so unless you guys want a bunch of super Banes running around the world, I suggest coming up with a plan. See ya!"

Ghost vanished into the shadows.

"I don't hear his heartbeat," Superboy said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that night, after much deliberation, Aqualad was decided as the leader until Robin had matured enough for the position. After this decision, orders were given for the Team to move out and investigate the manufacture plant further inland, with Robin's role as intel gatherer, Miss Martian's as lookout/sentry, and Kid's and Superboy's roles as backup if needed.

Robin flipped and dashed his way from cover to cover, his year of experience carrying him through completely unseen all the way up to the control center. Putting a birdarang in his hand, the Boy Wonder crept forward, being extra careful, and then slipped into the room.

He found two knocked out Kobra goons, and a woman in a black outfit, like Ghost's, but with noticeable variations, like the mask, for one, with blonde hair. She was just casually sitting on top of the goons, eyeing Robin like she was expecting him. The vigilante was at a loss, because he didn't feel any kind of hostility from her.

She just kept staring at him, before she jabbed a thumb at the computer, and the message was clear: download the stuff, already.

With a hard swallow, Robin moved to do just that. He plugged his cable into the computer, and turned his focus to that. The rear-view in the hologram came up, and the woman was gone, the goons still there, however. Robin swallowed hard again, reporting his happening to the Team via the telepathic link.

Miss Martian, nearly invisible, continued her own sweep, relaying her finds of numbers, weapons, crates, and other things. She also reported seeing two other distinct individuals wearing black clothes and white masks…both of which turned their heads to look directly at her, but they did nothing besides, displaying no hostile intent.

" _They know we're here,"_ Aqualad thought gravely.

" _Yeah, but_ _they_ _as in Ghost's family, or_ _they_ _as in literally everyone here?"_ Kid asked.

" _Just Ghost's family, I think,"_ Miss Martian said. _"No one seems to be in a hurry or aware of us being here."_

" _Alright, so Ghost and his family know we're here; why haven't they done anything?"_ was Superboy's question.

" _Think about it,"_ Robin said. _"Ghost took down Blockbuster with a single hit. He said he's a demigod, the son of Poseidon, and that the other four are his family. It stands to reason that the others are demigods too, then, and if Ghost is the littlest one, then the others are probably way stronger. Strong enough to also bring down something like Blockbuster with a single hit. If all of us besides Miss Martian were handled by that thing, and that thing was handled by one kid, then four adults are more than enough to handle us. They know we're here, and they're not worried."_

The Team had their varied reactions, but Aqualad was silent through the link.

" _Aqualad, what do we do?"_ Robin asked. _"Aqualad?"_

Right now, the Atlantean was too paralyzed to even form coherent thought. He had been scanning the area, when he had turned his head and saw that about an inch from his nose was one of the tell-tale white masks of Ghost's family. It was such a paralyzing thing because he had enhanced senses.

As an Atlantean, a water-dweller, his hearing had to finer tuned, and his sense of smell was better as well. Not on the level of Superboy, but still better than that of any human, even the likes of Robin and Batman. Not only that, but Kaldur was a trained fighter, having fought criminals and supervillains for years now. To be snuck up upon so easily, for someone to get so close to him, right next to his ear, and for him to not even feel their breath, or hear their breath—or their heartbeat with such proximity—was indescribably terrifying.

The Ghost before him pulled back slowly, non-threateningly, and brought a finger to their lips in a clear _shh_ message. Aqualad nodded shakily, and noted the heart-shaped pompadour. The Ghost vanished, and that's when Aqualad's synapses fired again, and he became aware of the psychic noise.

" _I am alright. I just had an…encounter with one of the Ghosts. He was right next to me and I never knew. Robin, do you have the intel?"_

" _Yeah, I got it."_

" _Then we are leaving. Ghost's family allowed us the information, they know we are here, and one of them was close enough to have killed me. I will not test their generosity any further."_

" _Dude, what of the Kobra-Venom? We can't just leave that stuff to be sold all over the streets!"_ Kid Flash protested.

" _Agreed,"_ Aqualad said dejectedly, _"but there is too much risk to our lives here for an unequal amount of gain. Batman also told us recon only, so by leaving we are honoring his command as well."_

" _Don't use Batman as an excuse!"_ Kid further protested. _"If he were here, he'd—"_

" _KID FLASH!"_ came the mental boom of the Atlantean. _"You all elected me as leader of this team, and as leader, I order all of you to retreat. I will take full responsibility for our actions tonight, and inactions. Now do as I say, all of you."_

With varying levels of reluctance, the Team did as instructed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that night, Sportsmaster arrived in his helicopter to find the five Ghosts waiting at the landing sight. He landed, killed the rotors, exited, walked forward, and then asked Arashi, "Where is everyone, and where is the Kobra-Venom?"

Arashi held up a scroll in response to the first question, and a single vile of Kobra-venom in his other hand.

Sportsmaster looked at the two items, trying to work out a conclusion. He wasn't the world's smartest man, not in books and tactics anyway, but he was a very competent man, and while he didn't know about the scroll, the vile clued him in on something that brought forth a whirlwind of emotions.

"Are you telling me that this one vile is _all_ there is?"

" _Yes,"_ came the distorted response.

"How!?"

The manufacturing plant blew up on que, and Sportsmaster hit the deck to avoid any debris. When he deemed it safe, he looked back up and gulped at what he saw. All five Ghosts standing above him, the angle making the grins on their masks appear as deep frowns, the fire raging behind them, casting a demonic backdrop for the scene.

Then something else clicked in Sportsmaster's mind. "Are you telling me that…everyone here…Kobra…his cultists…Shimmer and Mammoth…Bane and his men…you killed them…all of them?"

Arashi waved the scroll.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _Explain,"_ Vandal Savage ordered with a heavy growl.

Arashi was unfazed by the caveman's threatening tone. "The baby wanted you to have one vile of Kobra-Venom, let the kids live, and kill everyone else. Like I keep telling you people, me and mine are letting the baby dictate things, and right now the baby wants to keep working for you while also doing his own thing. You're more than welcome to fire us, in which case you'd better have friends in much higher places than where all of you are, because our policy is that when a client fires us, we simply kill that client and call it a day."

Arashi inclined his head, making the illusion of his mask's grin widening, becoming sinister. "Think you're all impossible for us to kill?"

None of the Light verbalized anything.

" _There is a doctor, Serling Roquette, at the Royal University in Star City. Capture her, and bring her to Infinity Island."_

Vandal Savage cut his feed, and the rest of the Light followed suit.

Arashi just exhaled shortly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Mount Justice_

Batman, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Flash, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, and Captain Marvel were all present to hear Aqualad's report on the mission, the encounter with the now-named Ghost, the intel gleaned from the computer, and the recon of the manufacturing plant, of which satellite images showed to be destroyed.

Batman was torn between ripping Kaldur's ass for not having a set of balls and showing some ingenuity, courage, and initiative in the face of overwhelming odds, or commending Kaldur for his excellent use of caution and common sense when faced with largely unknown and highly suspected to be powerful individuals, and getting his team out of dodge without unnecessary risk or hazard, while also displaying great discipline by following strict orders to recon only.

The Caped Crusader settled for a combination.

"There will come a time in which you will need to heed risks and proceed anyway with caution and thinking on your feet. There will always be variables you can't account for, and you will need to learn how to overcome them. Tonight, however, you all performed well. The League will handle any outbreaks of Kobra-Venom."

"And the Ghosts?" Aqualad asked.

"They will be _my_ concern," Batman said with utter finality.

The Team was more than happy to let that be the case.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the Batcave, Bruce sat alone before his supercomputer. Right now, he was patiently waiting for his program to come up with a list of suspects matching the audio Robin's systems had recorded during his conversation with Ghost.

Ten years old, eleven in a few days.

Older twin sister.

Father was the Greek god Poseidon, meaning a single-parent household, or one with a stepparent.

While Ghost himself admitted he didn't know what gender he was, due to having multiple personalities and the ability to change gender, Batman had set the parameters to search for a boy.

So, his computer was combing through a world-wide list of sets of older-sister-younger-brother twins who were ten and whose birthday was within twenty days, and they lived in a house reportedly without a father or were with a stepfather.

Of course, Batman was no idiot. All of this information he had input was based on what Robin recorded, and audio analysis yielded the conclusion that Ghost wasn't lying, but there were many skilled liars in the world. And he might not even be lying, consciously; all that he knew might've been fake memories planted in his head, and he was a test-tube creation made a few weeks ago and would expire soon, hence why he thought his birthday was in a few days. Further, there was no telling how many sets of twins there were in the world that matched the given criteria.

It was also a possibility that Poseidon had chosen to live with his lover and children, or split himself so a copy was living with his lover and children. Batman didn't know, and Diana couldn't give an accurate analysis, as the minds of gods could not be comprehended or understood my mortals. That all meant that the search parameter of missing dad or present stepdad could set the whole thing off.

Another way the father parameter could set the search off was if this mystery lover hadn't gone for a man, but a woman. A strange thought to be sure, but not one to invoke reaction from the Dark Knight. The Hammer of Justice disregarded sexuality, religion, gender, race, and all social distinctions.

Other ways this search could be thrown off is if Poseidon had become a woman for this union, and so the twins in question were in fact living with their father, or the sister had her brother's gender-change ability, and was living as a boy, or the sister was a runaway and God knew where she would be at that point, or Ghost didn't know his age, and therefore ten was the wrong number.

Anyway, all of this running through Batman's mind just meant that he was aware of just how long it was going to take for his systems to find at least a sliver of a lead—

MATCH FOUND

—then again, he had been wrong before.

Batman pressed a key, and the list was brought up. Out of all records in the world, meaning the computer had brought up information that was in databases which meant that information not stored in a server somewhere was left out, only three hundred and fourteen prospects turned up.

Batman's eyes narrowed as the list started scrolling up, both in scrutiny at the information provided as he read it, but at the number itself: 314, the first digits of pi, written as a Greek symbol. Greek. Greek god. The Greek god Poseidon. Coincidence?

Batman thought not.

He sipped his Bat-coffee as he continued scrolling through the list of children. For the next thirty minutes, names and rudimentary facts kept scrolling up and away, until he read something that made him hit a key. The computer brought up the file to take full-screen, and Batman's eyes narrowed at what he was reading.

Absent father, officially described by the woman as "lost at sea." Daughter, in and out of several schools due to unexplainable happenings and behavioral problems. Stepfather of ill-repute. And look at that: a younger brother reported to be stillborn due to lung complications just minutes after birth.

Batman's eyes narrowed.

Hitting several keys, the computer brought up the physical data for the daughter, matching it up to a picture. Next, from video taken by Robin's mask, the detective brought up an image of Ghost, and matched the image of him up with the girl. The computer ran its analysis based on systems of math, some of them rudimentary, some of them complex, and determined these facts:

Persephone Jackson, age ten, due for eleven on the 18th, was of the same height and weight as Ghost.

Now that the Dark Knight had something to go on, it just begged the question of what in the hell had happened to Percy Jackson in the past eleven years.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I'm having a lot of fun with this. You know how I know I'm having fun with this? Because I made PJO canon in the YJ world, and I haven't the faintest idea whether I'm going to do anything with it or not.**_

 _ **I am most welcome to your suggestions.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	32. Yurei and Young Justice: Pt 3

_Y_ _ūrei and Young Justice: Pt. 3_

 _ **Forgot to mention but we hit 600 Reviews the chapter before last. Woo-hoo, guys! Great job and thanks for all the support!**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto or Young Justice

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now that he thought about it, searching for any clues as to who Ghost was had been stupid.

Well, no, not really, he rationalized. There was no way he could've known beforehand that Ghost was apparently a stillborn, and he had a sibling living in Manhattan. The problem was that this appeared to be a dead end. Sure, now Batman had a strong suspicion that Ghost was Percy Jackson, but that didn't help any. Going to Manhattan and telling Sally that her son that died at birth was actually alive and part of either a mercenary or criminal gang of metahumans wasn't going to help anything.

If anything, it would only make things worse for the struggling little family.

Reading the compiled reports, Batman felt just a little bit of pity for the small Jackson house. Sally dropped out of high school her senior year to care for her uncle who was dying of cancer, with her parents having died in a plan crash when she was five, and then her uncle died, leaving her with nothing and no one, as she was an only child, and both of her parents had been only children, and all four of her grandparents were already dead. From that point, she took several small jobs, managing her time between work and nothing but work, until she requested maternity leave in August to care for her newborn daughter, meaning that sometime in November of '99 she and Poseidon conceived.

And then there came all the usual struggles of parenthood, struggles only made worse by the low income, yet not low enough to where Sally could've applied for food stamps or WIC. There were also no reports of daycare enrollment, meaning Sally either found a babysitter, or she took Persephone with her everywhere she went, even to work. However, despite keeping up with the child for six years, it seemed Sally had to breakdown and find a source of higher income, and she found Gabriel Ugliano, a slob by anyone's standards.

Batman supposed he could've looked this man's file up, but he knew he'd discover some tragic happening or rough upbringing, which would forth feelings of pity, and something like Gabriel wasn't supposed to be pitied.

However, perhaps it wasn't money that drew Sally to Gabriel, as records were indicating that she was relatively financially able, but Persephone herself. There were behavior reports from when the toddler started preschool, but none of them read…accurately.

A snake in her cot that she strangled with her bare hands.

Strange men in trench coats with one eye, watching her.

Claims she could speak to the fish, and the fish spoke to her.

Clearly, to Batman, little Persephone was seeing things of the mythological world, and she was coming in to her powers as a daughter of Poseidon. Speaking to marine life was undoubtedly an ability granted by her status as a demigod, and Batman had a passing wonder about what Aquaman and the rest of his people would make of a child of their chief god.

Further reading about the compiled information on Persephone yielded that she was already quite the standup little girl, having several fighting reports filed against her, with her side of the story always being that she was "kicking bullies' butts," with the one being bullied sticking up for her and acting as a witness. Still, rules were rules, and fighting was fighting, and fighting was against the rules, and so Persephone suffered from expulsion from many daycares and elementary schools.

Some teachers had recommended in their reports court orders for psychiatric help and medicine, citing concerns that Persephone may be schizophrenic, bipolar, or (insert disorder here). It was a rather extensive list. None of it correct, at least, at face value, but she had tested positive for dyslexia and ADHD.

Batman made a mental note to get with Wonder Woman and Aquaman later to discuss what they knew of modern demigods.

So, in conclusion, Percy Jackson was apparently the young mercenary Ghost, part of a five-man squad collectively called the Ghosts, had MPD, superhuman abilities, and an older twin sister living in Manhattan, whose mother and her both believed Percy to be dead. None of that helped to answer any of the questions Batman still had.

How was Percy still alive after dying of lung complications?

Was he truly alive, or was Ghost a clone created from dead Percy?

How did Percy/Ghost come into his powers?

Who trained him?

Who were the other Ghosts?

Did they clone Percy?

Did they train Percy?

The Dark Knight's eyes narrowed, and he typed a few things, bringing up the medical reports of the birthing night. Reading through them, his eyes widened when he realized something: there were no reports on what had happened to Percy's body. No report on cremation or burial. There wasn't anything even listed about asking Sally what she wanted to do, or anything Sally said in regard to the fact.

So, your son dies of lung problems minutes after birth despite there being no indication of complications from all ultrasound screenings, and then that's it. Something was wrong here.

If it was scientists, there would have been a more complete layout. There would have been cremation records, or burial records, but there wasn't even a certificate of death anywhere to be found. Either Percy's body was stolen, or he had never died in the first place, but the bottom line was that covering this thing up was done either by incompetents or by someone who didn't care.

And the only people that came to the Dark Knight's mind that wouldn't care about kidnapping or stealing an infant's corpse would be someone divine.

Now it was the questions of which divine entity did the deed, and why.

However, there were still problems.

So, Batman knew that Percy was probably Ghost; great. He knew that Ghost/Percy had superhuman powers; awesome. Ghost/Percy admitted, or at least _thought_ he was, the son of Poseidon; wonderful. Ghost/Percy knew he had a big sister, and that his birthday was August 18; terrific.

None of that helped answer _why_ any of this had happened, and none of this certainly assisted in the quest to discover which god had allegedly stolen away baby Percy, and why they had done it, and for damn sure none of it helped on who the Ghosts were.

Thinking hard on it, the Dark Knight decided that the Ghosts would have to be dealt with on a more personal level to get more information on them, and he'd have to talk to Wonder Woman and Aquaman for more information on the divine end of things, and that Sally and Persephone Jackson were dead ends, as they had no knowledge of their son/brother being alive, or cloned—potentially—and therefore certainly had no knowledge of him being a superhuman mercenary/criminal.

Batman moved his fingers, typing all of this into a note file, and he was about to the button to archive these findings and data, when he stopped.

Whether Percy/Ghost was a clone or not, he had knowledge of his sister—someone he never should have met—and he knew when his birthday was—something improbable if he was kidnapped to be made into a soldier. In other words, unless he had contact with them, or had surveillance of them, Percy/Ghost shouldn't have had any knowledge of anything outside what he had been taught by whoever had taught him.

So if his teacher had told him that he had extended family, it stood to reason that Percy/Ghost checked in on them out of sheer curiosity as to who they were, because he was just an almost-eleven-year-old, and children were very curious creatures.

And if his teacher hadn't told him about his sister, then Percy/Ghost had found out about them anyway, somehow.

There were questions that needed answering, and Batman was going to get those answers.

Did those answers pertain in any way, shape, or form to bringing Percy/Ghost down? Probably not, but there was a possibility something might help. Well, speaking of bringing down, Percy/Ghost hadn't done anything expressly criminal. Yes, he and the other four had apparently been working for Cadmus and Cadmus had been conducting illegal experiments, but there was mind control involved, so there went any kind of case. There was also the Santa Prisca episode, in which the Ghosts appeared to be acting as security for the Kobra Cult, who were manufacturing illegal drugs, but that information came from a group of covert operatives who, for all intents and purposes, was not supposed to be there.

In this age of aliens, and super technology, and heroes, and villains, and magic, and tons and tons more stuff, some laws did still apply.

So, legally speaking, Batman had nothing to pin on the Ghosts.

That still didn't shake his resolve in going to Manhattan to question Sally about her son…but he did question some other things.

For example, it was four in the morning here in Gotham, and Gotham was in New Jersey, and Manhattan was just across the river, meaning it was four in the morning for the Jackson family, meaning that Sally would probably be getting up in roughly two hours, maybe three, to get herself and her daughter ready for another day….Wait, no, today was Saturday, meaning they'd be sleeping in.

Another question that popped up was how to approach this. Batman was a well-known figure, and so Sally would easily recognize him, but just popping into the woman's apartment seemed extreme just for a game and Q&A, especially when Sally wasn't hostile or potentially hostile.

Or was she potentially hostile?

If Percy/Ghost knew of her, and she knew of him, and she knew that he wasn't dead, or knew that he was a clone, then she had been withholding information for years without telling any law enforcement, and was aware of his criminal activities and wasn't saying anything. Noble of a parent, but still against the law…who was he to say anything about being against the law?

Anyway, how to approach this situation….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sally had awoken to many sounds in her life. Car alarms, gun shots, sirens, the bad-weather siren, loud music, the TV, someone farting, her daughter crying, in need of anything between a diaper change, food, or attention, stomach grumbles…but, on the continued list, voices of people she recognized but never thought she would ever meet in her life unless something was very seriously wrong, was not on there.

Sally gingerly exited her bed, grateful that Gabe wasn't up yet, and made her way into the living room, where she found her baby sitting in the lap of Wonder Woman, showing off one of the dolls Sally had managed to find enough money to buy, with Aquaman standing off to one side, and Batman standing off to the other side.

Upon her entrance, four heads turned to her, the smallest of which adopted a very bright expression, and the owner of which came bouncing forward.

"Mommy! The Justice League is here!"

"Yes, they are sweetie…why?"

Sally looked happy and excited enough to Persephone, but her question was clearly strained and unsure to the adults.

Batman took complete control of the situation by taking a single step forward. "We have recently come into contact with a new group of super-criminals who call themselves the Ghosts. We suspect one of the members is your son, Percy Jackson."

Aquaman and Wonder Woman both gave Batman disapproving looks at his complete lack of tact, but there was nothing they could do now besides damage control.

Sally's eyes fluttered. "M-My son? But he…he…"

Even after almost eleven years, she couldn't bring herself to say the word "dead."

Persephone tilted her head to the side. "Percy? He's not dead."

At her declaration, even Sally looked surprised. "What do you mean, sweetie?"

"I have dreams about him," the girl said simply. "He's four other people—two boys and two girls—and he does things."

"What…kind of…things…?" Sally was still reeling from the fact that apparently her daughter had been dreaming of her son and hadn't told her. She felt just a little stung by that.

"Um…" Persephone's eyes darted to the Justice League members present, "…bad…things."

It was clear to all that she knew very well what her brother was doing, and was both protecting him, and being a good girl like she was taught.

Wonder Woman took the role of good cop. She stepped forward and kneeled down to Persephone's level, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder, offering a kind and reassuring smile.

"Persephone," she said kindly, "that's very brave of you, protecting you're brother like you are, and your mother did a very excellent job in teaching you what is right and wrong," the Amazon gave a quick, sincere nod to Sally, making the woman flush at being praised by the heroine, "but your brother could be in a lot of trouble, or he could do something very bad that we won't be able to help him with, so we need your help to find him, and keep him out of any harm."

Persephone stared at her doll, then glanced up. "Promise you won't hurt him?"

"Not too much," Wonder Woman winked. "I might need to knock some sense into him on your behalf though."

Persephone offered a tiny, unsure smile. "I don't know… _where_ …he is, exactly, but I know he's here, in the United States, and he…he doesn't like _bad guys_ very much. He's going to get rid of them, he said, so you good guys don't have to worry about them anymore."

The implications of that statement rattled Aquaman and Wonder Woman. Batman just continued to stand there, cape around his body. Sally looked very pale.

"Thank you for your time, Mrs. Jackson," the Dark Knight said, a clear indicator that it was time to leave. He stepped forward and handed Sally a small remote. "If your son ever comes by here, or you're in great danger, press this button, and the League will be there as soon it can."

Persephone tugged on the cape, bringing Batman's attention down to her. "Can I have one of your throwie-thingies?"

"No," was the curt answer, "but you can have this."

Reaching into the back of his utility belt, Batman produced a cookie that looked exactly like a bat. A Bat-cookie. Persephone gained stars in her eyes.

"Wow~! Thanks, Mr. Batman!"

She got a little pat on her head, before the Caped Crusader spun on his heel with a flourish, heading to the balcony. Wonder Woman rolled her eyes and looked at Sally. "You've done an amazing job with this one, sister." She looked down to Persephone. "Keep up the good work, little one. Maybe one day you'll be fighting side by side with me."

"Really?" Persephone bounced in place, holding her Bat-cookie and doll in separate hands.

"Mm-hm," Wonder Woman smiled kindly and left out the back door to the balcony.

That left Aquaman, who hadn't said a word at all the entire time, until now. He bowed at his waist and said, "An honor to meet you, young princess. The sea will always be there when you need her."

Persephone's elation at the Bat-cookie and Wonder Woman's praise became overshadowed by her confusion at such a cryptic statement, and Sally had to worry slightly if those words were going to come back and cause problems. However, she did have this emergency transmitter that went straight to the Justice League themselves, so…

Aquaman straightened and left out the balcony as well.

There was a sound like a jet taking off, and Sally figured that was Wonder Woman's invisible aircraft flying away. That left just her and daughter alone in the living room of the apartment, which meant that there were things that needed discussing.

Sally placed a firm hand on Persephone's shoulder, and gave a very sweet smile. "Now, what's this about having dreams of your brother and not telling me?"

The young princess swallowed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What are you thinking, Bruce?" Diana asked.

"When the Team was talking with Ghost on Santa Prisca, Ghost said that if you went to a prison full of killers, and killed all of those inside, there'd be that many less killers in the world. I believe the Ghosts are about to hit ever major prison that holds super-criminals in the world, starting with location here in the U.S.," Batman said grimly.

Aquaman and Wonder Woman's jaws fell.

"Both of you start contacting wardens. I'll tell Captain Atom on the Watchtower to do the same."

All three heroes set about getting the word out that something very big and very dangerous was about to go down.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, back in Manhattan, one Cheshire smirked up at the apartment many stories above her, and put a finger to her ear. "They just left. That mole we have with the kids is very informative. Do you want me to make a move on the girl and her mother?"

" _Not yet. We want to see what the Ghosts are planning first."_

"Understood."

With that, Cheshire, in civilian clothes, of course, melted into the throngs of the bustling streets.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Despite the initial panic of the possibility of the Ghosts targeting every major prison in the continental United States, it was an entire month before the Team or the Justice League saw hide or hair of them. And it wasn't even the whole Team or the League that saw them, but simply Miss Martian and Superboy on the transport truck to Belle Reve Penitentiary. It was only four of them, and the two superheroes only recognized them due to their hair.

A black pompadour shaped like a heart.

Blonde with two bangs falling past the face.

Orange and flowing.

Green, with bangs swept over the left eye.

The four people, wearing the orange jumpsuits and inhibitor collars required by Belle Reve, were all eyeing Miss Martian and Superboy with knowing grins, making the superheroes squirm and fearful. It was just…the gleams in their eyes, the way their lips went upward, exposing their teeth.

Of course, Icicle Jr. and Mr. Freeze were present, and they both saw the reactions of the Terror Twins, a pair that had tangled with Superman and Martian Manhunter. They both saw how the Twins looked very off-put by the other four, and they both turned their heads to gauge for themselves.

"Hey, babe," Jr. tried, getting close to Sukina. "What's _your_ name?"

"Mommy."

"What?" Jr. said, eyes going askew.

"Mommy," Sukina repeated. "So, still want to hit on a babe you'll have to call Mommy?"

Jr. looked absolutely repulsed by the idea, and slid away, now _very_ cooled off.

Freeze glowered at Arashi. "And who are you?"

He was ignored. Which made him glower even more. "I'm talking to you, new guy."

Arashi still ignored the ice villain.

Freeze's face contorted under his dome, and he was about to get violent, but he caught the eye of the security guard further up front, who shook his head and fingered the activation remote for the collars. Freeze settled down.

"Oh, don't mind our fearless leader," Bullock said, a nasty grin in place. "He doesn't talk to dead men."

Freeze cocked a brow, while Miss Martian and Superboy shared a look.

Minutes later, the truck arrived at Belle Reve, everyone disembarked, and were brought before Amanda Waller and Hugo Strange. She gave a speech that Yūrei did not listen to, and then gave a demonstration of what the inhibitor collars could do. Yūrei had to fake the pain of being electrocuted by the toy, all of them having experienced so much worse than the sting of a current.

After that, the girls and the boys were separated and taken to their respective wings.

"But, sir," Bullock whined, "I identify as a girl! You have to take me to the girl's wing!"

He got a shotgun butt to his chin. "Shut up, freak," the guard said dispassionately. "If you identify as a girl, then I bet you just love getting fucked, and where you're going with a bunch of dudes that haven't seen a woman in years, you're about to do a lot of fucking."

Bullock just cackled, enjoying himself.

Arashi rolled his eyes.

Superboy, Freeze, and Jr. all shared a look, all of them finding common ground in wondering just what in the Hell was wrong with the green-haired guy…whose name was still unknown. The guards escorted them all to the cellblocks, dropping Superboy and Jr. in their own cell, Arashi and Bullock in their own cell. The guards took Freeze away to somewhere more specialized.

' _M'gann!'_ Connor said through the telepathic link.

' _Here! I'm in a cell with Killer Frost. The guards took the other two to another cell. What do we do, Superboy? We don't have any help in here. Do you want me to try and contact the League and get backup?'_

' _NO!'_ Connor roared. If Miss Martian contacted the League and told them that four of the Ghosts were here, the clone was sure that Superman would come, and that was the absolute _last_ thing Connor wanted.

Through the link, he could feel M'gann's emotions. _'I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled like that. No, we can do this. The Ghosts had plenty of times to take us out, and despite how weird they make us feel, they're not hostile. We can handle whatever's being planned here. Are you with me?'_

' _I'm with you,'_ M'gann said strongly.

' _Then let's play it cool and see what happens.'_

Unfortunately, seeing what happened later on would scar both of them for life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Recess time came fairly quickly, and some genius decided that not only was it a good idea to let the boys and girls out at the same time, but also make their respective playgrounds conjoined by six inches of bullet proof glass.

Arashi and Bullock caught the eyes of Sukina and Yūwaku, and the leader gave a nod. The girls immediately exploded into action on their side of things. Sukina, with a single bound, sailed through the air and landed on the guard platform, startling both men. Yūwaku came over the rail, her foot connecting with one guard's head, completely obliterating the skull. Sukina grabbed the other guard and hurled him over the rail.

He went over the edge, screaming, and landed directly on his face from twenty feet up, breaking his neck and cracking his head wide open.

For dramatic effect, the girls went over to the edge and made a show of ripping off their collars.

Then, not having the time to stay and wave, they both dashed off, going so fast they became invisible to the naked eye. Their goal was to seize the control room and the warden's office, and disable the alarms, preventing a distress signal from going out to the Justice League.

Yūwaku sped through the halls, ripping through any guards she came across, and she busted down the door to the control room, where several men and women flinched in shock. A high-speed slaughter ensued, with Yūwaku's sheer physical strength being more than enough to shred the personnel like paper.

On Sukina's end of things, she broke down Waller's door, catching the fat woman in the middle of lunch. The broken pieces of the door didn't even have the time to completely fall away, Sukina was so fast. She hurled a senbon needle that shot right through Waller's shoulder, ripping straight through the bone and out the back. The poison coating the needle wasn't lethal, merely a knockout dose. Strange would not be so lucky.

Waller collapsed face-first into her tuna sandwich.

Meanwhile, back on the playgrounds, M'gann was struggling to get her mind back in order after witnessing a man get tossed off a ledge and die. Even Connor's mental shouts weren't enough to break through her turmoil and get her attention. The rest of the women in the female wing were flabbergasted.

Someone tapped Connor's shoulder and he looked up in time to where the last thing he saw was someone's fist as it roughly kissed him right in the nose. Superboy shot clean across the playground, slamming into a wall hard enough to leave a spiderweb patterns of cracks.

Sukina's voice chimed in Arashi's ear. _"Alarms disabled."_

"Good. No need to waste time in case there's a backup alarm. Yūrei, slaughter them all."

Sukina and Yūwaku might've disabled the alarms, but they left the collars on. They weren't here on some thrill ride of getting in a good fight with some powerful foes; no, they were here because Shin'en wanted to kill the bad guys, and killing the bad guys would be much easier if they didn't have their powers.

In puffs of smoke, the four were in their uniforms, and they went to work.

Bullock's wires cut through men like an axe through a stick.

Arashi used sheer blunt force to break bone.

Yūwaku popped her claws and ripped people apart.

Sukina used her agility and her senbon to make pincushions of people.

In less than five minutes, Yūrei had massacred the whole criminal population of Belle Reve, leaving the clean guards alive, and the dirty ones dead. That month they had more or less taken off had been spent doing extensive research on the guards of the various supercriminal prisons in the United States.

When Superboy and Miss Martian came to, they found themselves in the middle of a butcher's shop.

M'gann screamed.

Now, you might be wondering about where Shin'en's been this whole time, since he wasn't there at the beginning with Batman, and he wasn't there at Sally's apartment, and he wasn't at Belle Reve with the rest of his family. As it turns out, Shin'en had commandeered the Iron Heights prison airship, the holding place for the rogues of Flash, stuffed it full of explosive tags, and rammed the whole thing into Striker's Island, the holding place for the rogues of Superman.

The airship and the prison both went up in an explosion that was felt in the distant Metropolis.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **That was fun.**_

 _ **Did I just derail the majority of YJ's canon? You bet I did. Since I just killed the majority of the villains that are rather integral to the plot, I will be thickening things in the next chapter in this non-canon side story of the second part of my favorite story.**_

 _ **Also, I understand**_ **AC:OD** _ **is getting an update on the fifteenth of January, if that video I saw is credible, which means that come that time I'll vanish for a few days as I enjoy me some gaming time before I have to start calculus at eight every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	33. Yurei and Young Justice: Pt 4

_Y_ _ūrei and Young Justice: Pt. 4_

 _ **We're approaching the end of this little side-story. I haven't planned it all out, truthfully, so I don't know if it's going to be this chapter that's the end, or the next chapter, but definitely the next chapter at the latest.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto, PJO, or Young Justice

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Mount Justice_

 _September 23, 2010_

Black Canary and Miss Martian were sitting in the counseling room, the alien's skin being pure white, her head bald. It was…an offsetting look, considering the green skin with auburn hair everyone had gotten so used to, but Black Canary couldn't allow herself to focus on appearance changes. The girl before her was shell-shocked, rattled, unfocused, traumatized, and screwed up.

Truth be told, the whole League—sans Batman—was shaken. The slaughter at Belle Reve, the way the bodies had been cut apart and then just left strewn about the place like dirty laundry, was easily enough to blast mental scars in the minds of many, the League included.

Superboy was coping better, the G-Gnomes of Cadmus having shown him pictures of intense gore, but Miss Martian? She was effectively comatose with her eyes open. She hadn't said a word since the event, her mind was completely shut off, and she hadn't eaten at all. She was so shut down that she had unconsciously voided herself and didn't even react to it.

J'onn had cleaned her up, and she didn't make a sound or a movement during the whole process.

"Megan," Canary tried with a soft and calm voice.

The Martian's eyes remained fixed on the ground.

"Megan," Canary said again, this time firmer, harder.

Still no response.

Sighing, Canary engaged in telepathic contact with Martian Manhunter. _'Do I have your permission to use more…draconian…methods?'_

' _Granted. She needs to overcome this.'_

Inhaling, Canary let out a Cry, the sonic waves blasting Megan out of her chair and smashed her into the wall. Canary kept up the power, pressing Megan deeper into the wall. It seemed like it wasn't going to work, that the assault wasn't going to be enough to kickstart Megan's mind into at least a rudimentary protective strategy, like fight or flight, and then her eyes blazed green and she screamed, releasing a telekinetic shockwave that destroyed the counseling room and blasted all furniture away, including Black Canary.

The present members, Martian Manhunter, Captain Marvel, Batman, and Red Tornado, all ran inside, the alien going to his niece, the magical being and the android going to their fellow superhero, and the Dark Knight placing himself in the middle of everything.

"J'onn, is she alright?"

"She is better, now," the Martian answered, relief in his voice. "I can access her mind, but it will still be a while before she is back to her usual self."

After what she saw, she was never going to be her "usual" self again, but Batman didn't say that aloud. He turned to the others. "Is _she_ alright?"

"Fine," Canary groaned. "A few bruises, but nothing totally debilitating."

Batman nodded. "Good job. You made progress today."

As there was nothing else he could for the situation, he left. He still had mountains of data to comb through regarding the Iron Heights airship crashing into Striker's Island and killing everyone in both prisons.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vandal Savage was quite literally the oldest man on this Earth. He wasn't a god, or a super-powerful being. He didn't even have superhuman attributes, like strength, speed, reflexes, etc. What he did have, however, was a towering intellect sharpened and honed from 50,000 years of life.

What Vandal lacked in other areas, he made up for it with his mind. He knew countless fighting styles, countless techniques; he knew how to use every sword on the face of the planet, every spear, club, knife and fork; he knew how to raise empires and conquer nations, he knew how to manipulate and control and plan. He had been history's greatest leaders, like Alexander, Ramses, Attila, Caesar; he had sired more children than could be reasonably counted.

None of them even came close to his greatness—and he was a _great_ man, terrible by most accounts, but a _great_ man nonetheless—and certainly none of them had inherited his immortality, and so he was burdened with the pain of watching so many of his offspring grow old and die, some of them of which it broke his heart to see pass, others he was glad to see go.

Vandal knew many things, many secrets. He knew magics as well, sorcery, and economics. The human mind was reputed to be able to remember its entire life, though the usual life was roughly 80 years, and Vandal knew for a fact that this was true, for he could recall perfectly his own 50,000 thousand years, due to the meteorite's radiation so long ago.

Yet, for all that he knew, for all his experience, he could not figure out how to bring the Ghosts to heel. He didn't even know who the hell they were, besides the one referred to as "the baby" by the group's leader, whose name was still unknown. And the only reason the baby's identity was known was because the mole on the Team was present for the briefing.

Despite all the resources spent by the Light's collective pool, it was still a mystery as to who the Ghosts were. They had literally just popped up out of nowhere, took over a secret facility, and then cordially asked to be brought into the fold. Seeing how good they obviously were, the Light agreed, and that had been met with limited results, as it appeared that the Ghosts thought of everything as a vacation and were letting their baby call the shots, and their baby was one of the most random things Vandal had ever encountered.

And 50,000 years was a long time to encounter randomness.

However, it was now known that the baby was Perseus Jackson, the son of Poseidon and Sally Jackson, and the younger twin brother of Persephone Jackson, and though the Light didn't know it, their questions revolving around that situation were similar to Batman's.

Why was Perseus listed as dead?

Was he actually dead and what was walking around a clone?

If so, who made the clone?

What happened to Perseus' body, as there were no records of cremation or burial?

If Perseus wasn't dead, and the records were falsified, then what the hell?

If the doctor in question had truly thought Perseus was dead, and listed him as so but that was not the case, then what the hell?

Anyway, pondering on these questions wasn't going to help matters. The important part was the Ghosts as a whole, because they had just singlehandedly derailed _everything_ the Light had planned. The Riddler was dead, Ivo was dead, Mammoth and Blockbuster were dead, Devastation was dead—all the soldiers the Light had in its employ were dead, never mind the additional pools they could've drawn from in Striker's, Iron Heights, Arkham, and the other super prisons.

Due to all the manpower being drained, Vandal was reduced to having to take drastic measures.

Hence the boom tube to this place of fire and pain, and an audience with its sovereign god-ruler.

He was a tall, humanoid being, with grey skin marred by cracks. No hair was on his head, and he wore a dark blue tunic that came down to his thighs, with knee-high boots and gloves that came to his elbows. He was built more powerfully than any human could ever achieve—more powerfully than almost everything in the known universe, really. He was revered by all who lived on his planet as a god, and was feared by all others as a demon.

This being was entropy.

He was death.

He was—

"We have a serious problem," Savage said as he exited the boom tube.

The being turned around, shrouded in the shadows cast by the towering flames behind him. There was a red omega on his waist, glowing softly with evil and power.

The being's red eyes shined in the darkness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Back on Earth_

"Been having fun?" Sukina asked.

"Kinda," Shin'en said. "The good guys are weird. They don't make sense."

"I think I'd place more blame on the governments. They have death penalties for the things all these villains do, but they don't use those penalties because A) lawyers, B) activist groups, and C) the bad guys are useful for things."

Sukina shrugged dispassionately at the end of her statement.

"Oh…should we topple the governments, then?" Shin'en asked this with a look on his face like a child asking their science teacher about how photosynthesis works.

"You're calling the shots, kiddo. _Should_ we topple the governments?"

Shin'en thought about it. "Well, as bad as they are, they're still needed. Kinda like cancer, but the body needs it to keep going, you know?"

Sukina lit a cigarette. "Totally. Is that a no, then?"

"Yes."

"Yes, as in yes, or yes as in no?"

"…no."

"You are not making any sense right now."

"Are we supposed to make sense though?"

Sukina's eye twitched. "That's the last time I let you smoke the special cigarettes."

"That might be the last time you _let_ me, but it's not the last time I _will_ ," Shin'en said with a grin.

Sukina ruffled his hair. "Then you better make sure I don't catch you, because I will put you through pacifier therapy."

Shin'en stuck his tongue out at her.

The other three Ghosts watched the interaction with small smiles on their faces.

"In all seriousness, though," Arashi said, "what do you want to do next, kid?"

"Unh, I guess…see what the Light's up to? They're like, the ultimate bad guys, so they need to die."

Arashi nodded. "Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, the Brain, Ocean Master, Klarion the Witch Boy, Ra's al Ghul, and Vandal Savage. Luthor, Bee, and Master will be the easiest because we know we're they're at. Brain, Ra's, and Savage will be easy once they're found, and Klarion will be the trickiest because of his magic."

"Agreed. So, we go after the first three, and we'll probably get intel on the others from there," Shin'en said.

"Well, I have a lead on the Brain," Bullock said. "Something's going down in Northern India involving reported super-animals."

"Alright," Shin'en said, thinking as he spoke. "I'll take Ocean Master. Yūwaku, Luthor. Sukina, Bee. Bullock, investigate India for the Brain. Arashi, do some research on the League of Shadows, hunt down Ra's."

The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist nodded at their given orders, and they all went their respective directions.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Poseidonis (discount Atlantis)_

Per the comics that I haven't read, Ocean Master staged an attack on the underwater city in early September, failed, and was disgraced, and as the chronology of this fic is placed in late September, that means Ocean Master would _not_ be in discount Atlantis, but since I don't care about accurate time in what mostly amounts to a crack-fic…Ocean Master, or Orm as he's called, was enjoying dinner with his brother King Orin, sister-in-law Queen Mera, and a host of other water-dwelling peoples.

The occasion? Eh, who cares.

The important part was that suddenly Orm seized up, grasping at his throat.

"Brother!" Orin yelled.

Orm looked at him with wide eyes, and then he went rigid, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Blood went flowing out of his mouth, heading for the surface.

"ORM~!" Aquaman roared.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Bialya_

Queen Bee was enjoying a night of escape from the stresses of day-to-day life. Being a dictator, crushing resistances, making sure the country ran smoothly—enough—and of course, attending to her duties as a member of the Light. With so much on her plate, getting to sleep relatively peacefully at night in a vault surrounded by steel on all sides with dozens of security systems and a small army guarding her was such a relief.

Of course, if she had seen the masked head with the orange hair steadily rise from the other side of her bed, she might've been consciously scared enough to wet herself.

As it was, the dictator of Bialya died peacefully in her sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In Metropolis, it was daytime, and Lex Luthor was in his office, going over paper work. His body guard, Mercy, was slightly behind him. Right now, the woman only had one cybernetic arm, but there were plans for surgeries in the future for a full set of cybernetic limbs to make her the ultimate in bio-weapons.

The day was going along rather smoothly, really, all things considered, until there was an explosion on one of the lower levels, and the fire alarm went off, making one of Luthor's nostrils curl up in that way that belays annoyance. A plethora of theories went through his mind, the forefront two being something happened in a lab, or someone detonated a bomb.

Alas, it didn't matter. Luthor had designed this building himself, oversaw its construction, and upgraded it as the years passed with better technology. The automatic systems would take care of any fires—

 _BOOM_

 _BOOM_

 _BOOM_

Unless it was less a fire and instead a series of structurally debilitating explosions. Luthor honestly felt panic course through him when he heard the groaning of steal as his headquarters began to buckle under the weight it couldn't support due to so many beams apparently being destroyed.

However, that panic diminished as the upgraded support-providers kicked in. Machines throughout the skyscraper came to life, spewing cables and chemicals in efforts to create make-shift support beams. But more explosions rocked the building, and Luthor figured that this was a very coordinated attack, and that he needed to leave.

Now.

Luthor activated the hidden door behind his desk, which opened to reveal a rather large chamber filled with weapons and art, along with what basically amounted to an escape pod. Seats for two, rocket propulsion, parachutes, flares, mini-missiles, lasers, radar, sonar, life support, wine dispenser, the works. This little baby had cost over a billion dollars to make, and it was coming into service.

"Mercy, if you'd be so kind," Luthor said.

The cyborg prepped the pod, opened the door, fastened her boss into the seat, fastened herself into the seat, hit a few more buttons, Luthor hit a few buttons, the door closed, the rockets hummed to life, heating up extremely quickly. The hatch above opened, and with a blast, the rocket went shooting out the roof of LexCorp.

Of course, what the billionaire and his cyborg attendant hadn't ever expected was for there to be someone up there expecting them, and for that person to casually drop an explosive piece of paper down on top of the nose of the pod as it went shooting up, and for that paper to detonate, bypassing all countermeasures the pod had for hostile munitions.

One second Lex Luthor was alive, the next he was a dead fireball.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Northern India was where things got fun, because that's where Bullock was, hunting the Brain.

That was also where the Team was too, investigating reports of abnormally large animals, particularly the report of one Mayor Hill, who claimed to have been attacked by a gorilla with a minigun.

It was such a coincidence that the two parties' paths crossed.

But before that happened, Aqualad was suffering from way too many voices in his head, all of them talking about mistrust, secrets, and turmoil. Kaldur staggered out of some brush, seeing a trio of pylons standing out of the ground. Since this was the direction Captain Marvel had flown off to, he reasoned the hero was now in enemy hands.

Ripping a pylon out of the dirt to vent his frustrations at so many things, he spoke through the telepathic link. _'Enough. Captain Marvel has been captured, and we will need to work as a team to rescue him.'_

' _Psh, a team with_ _you_ _as leader?'_ Kid Flash scoffed. _'I don't think so—'_

Aqualad was done with their shit.

' _THIS is not up for debate,'_ the Atlantean said, voice hard as iron. _'You all chose me to lead this team, and when this mission is over, I will happily step down should you decide to pick a new leader. Until that time, I am in command.'_

With the law now put down with a level of authority that Batman himself would've approved, Aqualad gathered his Team to head for a compound Robin had located. When everyone was there, sans Superboy as he was handling a wolf problem, that's when they noticed the other guy, the one with the green hair.

"Ghost!" Aqualad breathed.

The Team drew weapons and took stances. After Belle Reve and the other prison destructions, the Justice League had officially declared the Ghosts to be dealt with as hostile. They were also to be dealt with extreme caution, and should they be encountered, backup was to be called forth.

The problem was, communications beyond telepathy were down, and Miss Martian could not broadcast far enough to where Martian Manhunter could hear, so the Team was effectively on their own against the green-haired Ghost, the one with the wires.

Bullock turned his head. "Hey," he greeted.

"You can talk?" Wally blurted.

"Yeah…why wouldn't I be able to talk?"

"Well, only Percy talked, the rest of you didn't, so…"

"Percy?" Bullock raised a brow under his mask, then it clicked. "Oh, you mean Shin'en."

"Wait, hold up," Robin broke in. His systems were on record now, as he was digging for intel. "You just called him Shin'en, and you didn't know his birth name was Percy, short for Perseus, so what gives? Why is Percy, or Shin'en, with you guys, and how long has he been with you?"

"Uh, he's with us because he wants to kill someone, and he's been with us for over a year now."

The Team shared a look behind Robin, who asked, "Who does he want to kill?"

"Yagura."

"Who's Yagura?"

"Pint-sized dictator."

"Dictator of where?"

"The Village Hidden in the Mist."

"Where is that?"

"The Land of Water."

"Where is that?"

"Eh, there's a lot of names for it. Some call it the Ninja World, the Shinobi World, the Elemental Nations, Hell, lots of names."

Robin hummed.

"Are you done recording me yet, or is there more stuff you want to ask?"

The Boy Wonder swallowed at being found out, an indicator of this person's intellect. He covered it up and moved forward with the interrogation. "Who are the rest of your group?"

"Well, there's me, who you've met, Shin'en, who you've also met, Sukina, the orangette, Yūwaku, the blonde, and Arashi, our leader. He's got the pompadour."

"Where are you all from?"

"Already answered that."

Robin pressed on with his questioning. "Who are you working for?"

"No one. Shin'en's calling the shots right now, so we do what he wants."

"And what does Shin'en want to do?"

"Kill all the bad guys so the world his sister and mom live in is just a little safer."

Robin shifted. "What are _you_ doing here, specifically?"

"Following Shin'en's orders of killing the member of the Light. Yūwaku killed Lex Luthor, Sukina killed Queen Bee, Arashi is hunting Ra's al Ghul, Vandal Savage, and Klarion, Shin'en killed Orm, or Ocean Master, and I'm here for the Brain."

The Team was floored after that little revelation, both at who the Light really was, especially because it was thought that the Injustice League was the Light, and at the apparent fact the Ghosts had just killed them all, or were in the process of doing it.

' _Uh, Kaldur?'_ Artemis asked. _'If this guy is supposedly stronger than Percy, or Shin'en, or whatever the heck his name is, and he's here to kill the Brain, what are we supposed to do?'_

Aqualad had to think about it, because the Ghosts were not supposed to be engaged without generous amounts of backup, but Batman had also told him after the Santa Prisca mission that he would need to heed risks and then proceed with quick thinking. Aqualad supposed this was the best moment to gain some experience in quick thinking.

' _Robin, explosive Birdarangs. Don't expect to hit. Kid Flash run and catch those explosives. Artemis, when Ghost dodges, fire explosive arrows. When that happens, throw the Birdarangs, Kid. Miss Martian, catch Ghost in a telekinetic field when he dodged, and hold him in place. Go!'_

The plan went off without a hitch, and Miss Martian was holding Bullock suspended off the ground, unconscious. The Team approached, cautiously, and then they all leapt back when Bullock lost color and turned into water. Miss Martian was so surprised that she lost her grip and the water splashed to the ground.

Robin raised his holo-computer up, analyzing the puddle. "It's not real water," he said. "It mimics water, but it's not _real_ water."

"Dude, what do you mean it's not _real_ water?"

"How many possibilities do you think there are behind the phrase 'it's not real water,' KF?"

Wally was cowed after being out down like that.

"Aqualad?" Miss Martian asked, referring to orders.

The Atlantean thought of what to do, looking at the puddle, and then he decided on a course of action, looking up with hard eyes. "We move in."

And so the Team moved in, Superboy breaking down a wall soon after, a large white wolf accompanying him. They found the compound not empty, since there were computers and surgical equipment about, and Captain Marvel unconscious on the operating table.

Aqualad gave a nod to Superboy, and the demi-Kryptonian ripped the restraints off the superhero, and Miss Martian used her telepathy to gently wake him up. Captain Marvel stired with a groan, blue eyes cracking open, before shooting wide, and he shot off the table.

"BRAIN!"

Ears were covered and grimaces were given.

"Yeah, our brains, ow!" Artemis hissed.

Captain Marvel shook his head. "No, there was a Ghost here, he fought Brain and Mala, they went away, couldn't see them."

"I-I f-found th-them," Kid Flash stuttered.

The Team joined him in looking behind the computer, and Artemis was sick.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Watchtower_

In any other circumstance, the Team would've been over the moon to be side by side with their mentors and idols in their secret base orbiting the planet, but in this circumstance, they were all off-balance. Batman had just finished replaying the audio and video from the encounter with Percy/Ghost/Shin'en, the meeting with Persephone and Sally, and the Team's encounter with the green-haired Ghost, Bullock.

All focus was on the Dark Knight, and they could all just feel that this meeting was going to be a doozey.

"From this point forward, for the sake of conversation and records, we will be referring to Ghost as Shin'en. Objections?"

There were none.

Batman nodded, and moved on. "The encounter on Santa Prisca gave us the intel that Shin'en has a misguided view on how to help the 'good guys,' and that help, in his mind, was to kill the 'bad guys.' The talk with Persephone yielded the fact that she, somehow, has had contact with her brother, and knew beforehand what his intentions were. The encounter in India with Bullock gave us intel on the Light, consisting of Vandal Savage, Klarion the Witch Boy, Ra's al Ghul, Lex Luthor, Queen Bee, the Brain, and Ocean Master, five of which are confirmed dead, and that it was the Ghost's plan all along to kill these individuals, and destroy the super criminal prisons in the United States. A plan that, by her own admission, Persephone knew about."

Just so no one could question him on that point, Batman hit the remote and replayed the scene. The holographic Persephone appeared on an omnidirectional screen and declared, _"I have dreams about him. He's with four other people—two boys and two girls—and he does things…"_ the video forwarded a bit, and Persephone continued, _"…he doesn't like bad guys very much. He's going to get rid of them, so you guys don't have to worry about them anymore."_

Batman let there be silence for a bit, so everyone could soak those words up, feel their gravity and weight, before he spoke again.

"Persephone and Shin'en are demigods, confirmed by Aquaman and Wonder Woman after they conferred with their gods, and their father is Poseidon. The dreams Persephone spoke of are magical in origin, and they allow a demigod to see the events of the past, events happening in the present, and events that can happen in the future, unless something is done. The implications and possibilities of that aside, it is clear the Persephone has had contact with Shin'en, and knew beforehand that her brother and his allies were going to kill over five hundred people…"

Batman inhaled.

"…and it is likely that she knows his location and next move, and if not, it is possible, through magic, to find out."

Their air turned cold and tense.

"What are you saying, Batman?" Wonder Woman asked.

The Dark Knight answered immediately, clearly, concisely, and he did not mince or hesitate with his words. "I am saying that the Justice League needs to question Persephone Jackson about everything she knows about her brother to prevent further deaths."

"Absolutely not!" Wonder Woman immediately exclaimed. "We are talking about an eleven-year-old girl!"

"An eleven-year-old girl that has intel on the world's foremost murderer at this point. Shin'en may have killed _several_ super villains by eradicating the inmates of Belle Reve, Iron Heights, Arkham Asylum, and Striker's, and by killing the majority of the Light, but there are still villains at large. Vandal Savage, Klarion, and Ra's have yet to be reported dead, and with the Light's motives yet unclear, they may try to rally what super villains there are left in the world, and either _kill_ Shin'en in retaliation, revenge, or to just remove him, or they may try to control his mind, and turn him and the Ghosts against us. The Justice League needs to find the Ghosts, and bring them in, both to protect them from any potential danger the Light still poses, and to prevent them from killing _anyone_ else. Regardless of their actions and alignments, our rogues were still human beings…mostly…and now they are dead. No matter how you look at it, Shin'en and his allies have committed hundreds of acts of murder."

The Justice League went silent at the beginning of the monologue, and stayed silent after as they tried to come up with counter arguments. Even the passionate members of the League were quiet on this. And then Red Arrow spoke up.

"Oh, come on. Don't act like any of you aren't the least bit relieved."

"What, Roy?" Green Arrow asked, surprised at what he heard.

"Well, if we all want to look at this in a negative light, I suppose we can say we were almost put out of a job. If you ask me, the Ghosts just did the world, and us, the greatest favor ever. Don't all of you look at me like I've lost my head, you know I'm right." Red Arrow's eyes narrowed behind his domino mask.

"All of us here have thought about it, at least once, killing these people. Since going solo, I've had to fight that urge so many times I've lost count. I can't tell you how many rapists I've imprisoned, how many child molesters I've caught, how many drug dealers getting kids killed that I've taken down, and just how much scum I've waded through. So many times I've wondered what the world would be like if I just…ended…some of them."

Green Arrow gasped. "Roy-!"

"Relax, GA, but none of you can judge me, because you've all had thoughts like mine." Red Arrow looked at Superman. "How many atrocities did Luthor commit before you had your first thoughts of roasting him with your heat vision, and how many more things did he do afterwards to where you nearly lost it?"

RA looked at Batman. "With all the things Joker's done, all the babies he's killed, the orphanages he's burned down, the hospitals he's blown up…you can't tell me you've never, ever, thought of killing him so he'd finally be stopped."

Roy started going down the line, pointing out everyone's worst enemy, the horrible things those enemies did, and how much the League had just wanted to end that villain once and for all.

"We've all had our low moments, those moments when we looked at things and said to ourselves _'It'd be better if this person were dead.'_ And yet we never did, and people continued to die left and right, and the only thing we did was try to stem the blood flow to a fatal wound. What I'm saying is…the Ghosts…they did what we _can't_ do. I will _never_ kill anyone—no one here will _ever_ kill anyone. If we all had the choice of killing the likes of Hitler, or Dahmer, or Attila the Hun, even knowing all the horrors they'd commit, we wouldn't."

The emotion in the room was nearly tangible it was so thick. Red Arrow was hitting soft spots, tugging on strings, pulling on doubts. The biggest impact was that he was putting his own vulnerabilities out there, creating empathy with the heroes.

He was also walking around, laying a discreet hand on everyone's shoulder.

"Maybe, instead of forcing ourselves to be heroes, we—just for once—relax a little. The Ghosts never killed anyone innocent. They've enabled millions to live better lives now. They've done what we've wanted to do, what we all know we've wanted to do deep down inside, and that's finally put an end to this world's monsters. Maybe, instead of fighting them and potentially getting Leaguers killed, we let the Ghosts go."

Red Arrow stood next to Batman, placing a hand on the Dark Knight's shoulder.

"Think of all the kids now that'll grow up to lead happy lives with their parents now that the Joker is gone for good."

"…this meeting is adjourned for a thirty-minute recess," Batman said. "Team, you are dismissed to Mount Justice, effective immediately."

None of them had the heart to protest after that speech, and they all left through the Zeta tubes back to their hideout. Minutes after the fact, the Justice League and Red Arrow gathered in the Zeta hall, with Batman bringing up the holo-computer.

" _Access granted. Vandal Savage, A-0-4."_

The scarred man stepped out of the light with a smile, and the League bowed before him.

In Mount Justice, the Team was face-to-face with the Ghosts.

"We have a serious problem," Shin'en said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Right, next chapter ends the fun.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	34. Yurei and YJ: Demigods & Darkseids

_Y_ _ūrei and Young Justice: Demigods and Darkseids_

 _ **Sorry for the Delay, but Episode Two of the First Blade came out and I've been playing that.**_

 _ **This is the last chapter of this little side story, and in a way, I rather regret it. This has been five chapters of time dedicated to a non-canon arc, five chapters that could've gone to more of Y**_ _ **ūrei's missions, bringing us closer to the end of this story, but hey.**_

 _ **What's life without a little bit of fun, right?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto, PJO, or Young Justice

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Mount Justice_

"Dude, how did you even get in here?" Kid Flash asked.

He and the rest of the Team were back from the Watchtower, and waiting for them was the Ghosts, in uniform, but with their masks off, revealing their faces.

Shin'en was definitely his sister's twin, and Zatanna and Rocket had to wonder if they hadn't been lied to about this one being a boy. He looked so much like his sister, with his hair as long and smooth as it was, that they looked exactly the same.

"Ways," Shin'en said. "But that's not important."

"You said something about a serious problem?" Aqualad prompted.

"Starro-tech. Little mind control chips made out of a telepathic starfish, infused with sorcery. Takes less than a full nanosecond to take control of a person, and each chip is specifically keyed to a specific person, like Belle Reve's collars."

"Telepathic starfish?" Kid said disbelievingly.

"Sorcery?" was Zatanna's question.

"How?" said Robin.

"The Light," Shin'en answered. "An Atlantean with access to the creature, a scientist with doctorates in everything brain related, a magic hellion, an entrepreneur with a bald head and hands in everything, a telepathic dictator, an expert tactician with an army of assassins, and an even greater expert tactician."

"…okay. Definitely a whelming problem," Robin said, "where are the chips at so we can destroy them?"

"Yeah, that's the problem."

Just then, the computer chimed, letting everyone know that Red Tornado, Black Canary, and Red Arrow were arriving.

"What's the problem?" Wally asked.

Shin'en pointed. "Them."

The three Leaguers stopped at seeing the black-clad individuals, and that moment of pause was all that Sukina needed. The real her, hidden above, threw a trio of senbon, each one striking home. Canary and Arrow went down the easiest; Tornado required some precision to get the needle into his chinks, but Sukina managed. The android short-circuited, and all three Leaguers went down.

The Team didn't know what to do, considering two of their den-mothers were just flattened, along with a friend.

Aqualad crossed his arms at Yūrei. "Explain."

Shin'en explained about Savage, Red Arrow being a clone and a mole, and how the League was under the control of the Starro-tech.

After all that, the Team was silent, until Wally pointed. "Prove it! For all we know, you're the ones lying, and you just killed three Leaguers!"

"I can hear Canary's and Arrow's heartbeats," Superboy said flatly.

"And I can sense a faint magical energy around all three of them," Zatanna supported. "Come to think of it, I could sense the same energy around Red Arrow back on the Watchtower, and I could feel it around each Leaguer after he touched them. I think Percy's telling the truth."

Aqualad turned to Miss Martian. "Can you read their minds?"

"W-Whose? The Ghosts, or Canary's and Red Arrow's?"

"Either."

"Well, I can't do unconscious minds, but I can try theirs."

Yūwaku lazily flicked a shuriken at her.

"Get down!" Connor roared, moving to intercept the flying death disk.

He knocked M'gann to the ground, and Kaldur's reflexes were on par. He brought out his water-bearers and knocked the shuriken out of the air. The Team took ready stances.

"Don't even think of reading our minds," Arashi said coldly.

"Well, we need some way to prove you're telling the truth about this League thing, and aren't trying to kill us!" Kid Flash protested.

"You'd be dead if we were trying to kill you," Bullock pointed out, putting his hands behind his head.

Before Kid Flash could say anything, Shin'en got annoyed and flared his chakra. The ground cracked at his feet, and the shockwave sent the Team stumbling.

"Look, whether you believe us or not doesn't matter. What matters is that the League is now being mind controlled by the bad guys, and since there isn't any antivirus to the Starro-tech, that means the only solution to get the League back on the good side is to kill them. I don't want to kill them, but it's better than them doing whatever Savage wants them to do. This was just a heads-up and an opportunity to brainstorm alternative solutions, but since you aren't into that and want to argue…"

Sukina pulled out a trio of senbon, the intent to kill clear in her eyes.

Robin immediately stepped in and stopped the situation, trying to prevent any of the Ghosts from committing murder, and prevent any of his friends from getting killed. "Alright, alright! We get it! League, bad guys now! No need to kill them. We can figure out a solution that does _not_ involve any killing. Everyone just stay whelmed."

"What do you have in mind?"

The imaginary camera zoomed in on Robin's face for dramatic effect before the imaginary screen went black.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Watchtower_

Various Leaguers were operating about the orbital complex, and the Team had split into separate cells, using the tactic of distraction followed quickly by action to inject counter chips into the bodies of the unconscious Leaguers, dubbed "cure-tech" by Rocket. It was also a Team-wide complaint that cure-tech worked so much slower than Starro-tech, as where the starfish worked in less than a second, it would take over an hour for the cure-tech to work its technological magic.

It was also rather pitiful of the Justice League to be taken out so easily by teenagers, but in the League's defense, they were now puppets only as good as their puppeteer, and Klarion was not that great at juggling, and the Team did have time to come up with excellent plans.

Anyway, the Team took out half the League in five minutes flat, leaving only the heavy hitters like the Trinity, John Stewart, Aquaman, the Flash, and Martian Manhunter.

On the observation deck of the Watchtower, Klarion was having a fit.

"No, no, no, _no!_ I'm losing my puppets left and right!"

Vandal's scowl was minute. The plan wasn't control of the League forever, but it was still nice to have them under his control. "It appears that the Team has managed to concoct a cure and are now on board. Summon back the others, we may be able to alter the plan in our favor, and if not, they will see the Light in time."

Klarion grinned cheekily, and activated the boom tube, from it came the above-mentioned members of the Justice League.

Not a moment later, there was the sound of slicing flesh, and Vandal's eyes went wide. His head slipped from his shoulders, his torso was cut through right across his heart, his arms fell off at the bicep, and his legs were severed at the knee.

Klarion's eyes nearly popped out of his skull. Standing behind the pile that was Vandal Savage were all five members of Yūrei. The Witch Boy gulped, and started fiddling with the controls to the League, and the eight power houses went into action.

As per Shin'en's request, this was to be a speed run, quick and easy. No extreme fighting, as there might be too much damage done to the Watchtower, which could lead to any number of problems. As such, there wasn't much of a fight on Yūrei's hands, as the League wasn't operating at full power, and cure-tech needed to only be placed on the skin for the effects to happen.

And the Ghosts were really fast.

Green Lantern took to the air and willed several tendrils from his ring, all aimed at the Ghosts, at the same time Superman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman sped forward.

Arashi threw a kunai forward that puffed into a Sealing tag. The tag stopped midair, and released a deafening cry and a blinding light. A flash bang. The founding seven members were instantly disoriented, as the flash bang tag wasn't like a flash bang of the mortal military. No, this flash bang was designed to disorient the likes of Jonin, and therefore had to be very, very powerful in order to break through a Jonin's defenses.

Beyond that, the League hadn't been expecting a projectile knife to turn into paper in the first place.

The Transformation Jutsu truly was an amazing piece of work.

Anywho, in those few precious microseconds, Yūrei struck hard and fast, and not just them, but the various elemental clones of themselves as well, slapping cure-tech onto exposed epidermis.

And just like that, the founding Leaguers were neutralized due to a good plan that involved a quick distraction and a fast action.

That's all it really took to bring down anyone.

And Klarion bit the dust as well, as it didn't make much sense to leave the Witch Boy alive during the brief confrontation.

After the one second of fun was over, with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Aquaman all down for the count, and Vandal Savage and Klarion dead, the Team all came in at once. Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Superboy, Miss Martian, Artemis, Red Arrow, Zatanna and Rocket all came running in, weapons ready for the fight of their lives.

They saw the downed League—Shin'en doing his best to bend light waves so as to hide the corpses of Savage and Klarion—and Robin was the only one who could find his voice.

"I don't know if we should be underwhelmed because the fight we've all been prepping for is over before we did anything, or overwhelmed that you guys just neutralized the founding seven members of the Justice League."

"I think they offset, so you should just be whelmed," Shin'en said.

Robin nodded. "Sounds good to me."

Connor crossed his arms. "I smell blood. A lot of it."

"Really? I don't smell anything."

"You're lying," Superboy said flatly. "You killed Savage and Klarion, didn't you?"

"Well, if you can prove that, we took down the League, in like, a second, with a super flash bang. You guys, yes offense, won't be any harder."

That's when the Tower's alarms went off.

 _WARNING: Boom tube detected_

That was all Robin needed to be kicked into action. "Computer! Bring up-"

 _WARNING: Boom tube detected_

"I know. Bring up -"

 _WARNING: Multiple boom tubes detected. Alien invasion pending. Strongest activity detected over Manhattan, New York._

The air changed, and the whole Team, and Yūrei, slowly turned to look at Shin'en, who was pale as his mask.

"Man…hat…tan…?" he said brokenly.

It didn't take a genius to figure out why: that's where his mother and sister were living.

Robin took command. "Computer: bring up reports."

Several holographic screens popped up with footage taken from CCTV cameras, satellites, and other cameras. There was chaos everywhere, with creatures that could only be described as demons wreaking havoc, pillaging, maiming, and killing. The military had already mobilized, but it was very clear they were _very_ outmatched. There were ships of alien origin in the sky, firing lasers down upon the cities.

"With the League out of commission, it's up to us to do what we can to stop this. The heaviest concentration is over Manhattan, which probably means that's where the mothership and/or the leader of this attack is. Because we only have so much manpower, all of us are going to New York," Robin said.

He had matured greatly over the months since Cadmus, and was now coming into his destined role as leader of the Team.

"I can help with the manpower," Shin'en said.

He crossed his fingers, and a massive cloud of smoke engulfed the Zeta deck. When the smoke cleared, hundreds of little boys in black outfits were everywhere, on the walls, on the ceiling, and covering the ground.

"O…kay…that helps," Robin managed to say.

Without further ado, he activated the Zeta tubes, and Shin'en started giving orders to his Shadow Clones, telling so many to go wherever Robin was sending them. In minutes, the deck had been cleared, and it was just the Team and Yūrei left, and the next tube Robin opened lead to Manhattan.

Shin'en was the first to go.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When everyone was present, the demigod said, "You guys do your good guy thing, I'm going for Sephy."

He sped away in the next picosecond.

"Uh, did he just refer to his sister as 'Sephy'?" Kid Flash asked.

"Yes," Sukina answered shortly. "I think saving the planet is more important than wondering about the mind of an eleven-year-old."

"Right, what do we do?"

Robin smirked. "Our good guy thing."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en raced through Manhattan, cutting down the alien things as he came across them. The League's Zeta tube entrance/exit had been placed three miles away from Sally's apartment in the Upper East Side, and the situation was reminding Shin'en of his sixth birthday, when he had traversed the two miles from the pond to the orphanage in ten seconds.

The circumstances of that night spurned Shin'en into a higher gear, and compressed cones of air formed around him due to his speed. He shot up the side of a building and bounded off its roof, soaring through the air accompanied by the sound of a jet plane.

The angle and trajectory put him on the perfect path to go flying right through the fire escape window of the apartment. Shin'en crashed through the glass, skidded across the carpet, lighting it aflame due to the friction. He found one of the demon thingies snacking on the walrus' insides, and felt very happy at the sight.

He decided to let the demon thingy be.

To his dismay and great concern, Shin'en didn't sense the bodies of his mom or sister in the apartment, and expanding his range through the complex yielded nothing as well. Gulping, he sat down and focused, mixing his chakra into his gut, where he always felt the tell-tale tug when his divine powers were being invoked.

He experienced a slight headache at the massive influx of information that flooded his brain, but he buckled down and soldiered on, combing through the whole of the city, going through body after body, looking for the unique DNA that belonged to his sister, and the altered DNA of his mother.

Godly spunk and subsequently carrying a half-god baby did things to a person.

Funny enough, Shin'en came across three pairs that matched the DNA he was looking for, but they were all boys, and Persephone was not a boy. And even if she had figured how to change her gender by copying the abilities of sea life, particularly the clownfish, none of the women fit Sally's body. They were either too heavy, too tall, or too short.

Shin'en kept looking, starting to grow panicked, and then everything…stopped.

The alien ships ceased their bombardment and the demons took to the air, heading for the ships. And then the voice was heard. A smooth voice, cold, authoritative, assertive, dominant, _godlike_. It rolled through the minds of all on planet earth, penetrating all regardless of their mental fortitude and will.

Not even Miss Martian, with all her telepathic power, power superior to even her uncle's, could stop the voice from breaching her mind.

" _People of Earth, my name is Darkseid. I am the one responsible for this attack on your planet, and I am the one with the power to end it. I am here for a girl by the name of Persephone Jackson. She lives in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York. Currently, she is under the protection of certain beings also residing in Manhattan. Deliver this girl to Times Square, and I will leave your world. Disobey me, and I will rain hellfire. You have ten minutes to debate amongst yourselves a course of action."_

The presence of Darkseid left the minds of all those on Earth, including those of the "certain beings."

Shin'en wasted no time in bringing the water around him, freezing it into wings. He shot straight up through the rest of the apartment complex, and went blazing for Olympus. When he got close, the Lightning Armor crackled around him with a clap of thunder, and he demolished the magical shield around the mountain city, and kept going, heading right for the throne room.

With a sound like a speeding airplane, Shin'en soared down the streets, his tailwind causing a massive trail of dust to erupt behind him. Glass shattered and beings scrambled. Weaker structures cracked, and the weakest structures crumbled entirely. In seconds, he flew all the way from the Upper East Side to the throne room of the Olympians, and he blasted down the doors, completely ignoring the whole gathering of half-bloods and bickering gods.

Shin'en got right in Zeus' face. "Give up my sister and I'll shove your Bolt up your butt."

The fifteen-foot-tall god was absolutely gobsmacked, as was everyone else in the throne room, except for one person.

"Percy!"

The demigod in question turned around and instantly brightened. "Sephy!"

He descended to the ground and met his sister halfway, and for the first time since they played footsie in their mother's tummy, they touched each other. In a hug.

Zeus slammed his Bolt to the ground, bringing all attention back to him. "Who are you!?"

"How do you _not_ know that at this point? My sister literally just said my name."

The sky god adopted a look between embarrassment and anger because he was embarrassed.

"Father," Athena said carefully, "perhaps exploring alternative solutions with our given assets would be the right course of action, as opposed to needless questioning."

Apollo coughed. "Based on the time we were given, we have seven minutes before… _him_ …does the world-ending thing."

"Improper grammar," Athena pointed out on reflex. "I mean, never mind."

"Um, why don't all of you fight Dark-"

All twelve gods roared at once. "DON'T SAY HIS NAME!"

The demigods all covered their ears due to the volume.

Shin'en had channeled chakra to his ears, holding his drums in place, effectively rendering himself deaf, as soon as he heard the intake of breath.

"I take it you all fought him once and had your butts kicked?" Shin'en asked.

Athena nodded. "The short answer is yes."

"Cool. Alternative solutions to handing my sister over?"

"Five minutes," Apollo said.

Athena thought hard, so Shin'en just started throwing things out there.

"Literally everyone here gets in full battle regalia and we wage a mini war."

"The potential for casualties is too high," Athena shot down.

Shin'en frowned. "The end goal is the planet's continued existence and the lives of the majority of the population. You're the battle goddess; shouldn't a lot of casualties against this degree of victory be worth it?"

Athena stared at him. "Where have you been for the past eleven years, and what have you been doing?"

"Killing people," Shin'en shrugged. "We don't have time for that conversation. So…big battle?"

"Four minutes," The sun god said, urgency creeping into his voice.

"A battle is pointless without knowing where _he_ is."

"Mothership," Shin'en suggested.

"Logical, but still unknown."

"Draw him out."

Athena raised a brow. "Use your sister as bait?"

Shin'en crossed his arms. "More or less, so you'd better not let anything happen to her….Actually, I have a better idea."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Persephone was a nervous wreck as she stood in the middle of Times Square by herself. There was devastation all around her, wrecked and overturned cars, broken street, flaming buildings, dead bodies. There were spaceships dotting the sky, lasers pointed down.

And the whole planet was resting on her shoulders to pull this off.

She stood there long enough to where her ADHD started kicking in, and she started fidgeting, drumming her fingers against her legs and tapping her foot. Then that got old after like, five seconds, and she threw her arms up and looked at the sky, where the big ship was.

"Okay, I'm here. Now what, chicken butt?"

Persephone rather liked that little rhyme. She had learned it from a new friend she had made at school, a little girl from down South who had to move due to her parent's jobs. It was something the girl said a lot, and Persephone liked it, and so it had stuck.

Then that cold voice rolled through her head.

" _Chicken butt…the last words you'll ever utter on this planet and they pertain to the posteriors of poultry. If I were a lesser being, I might've been amused by such a phrase. However, what I am truly amused by is the plan your brother and that pathetic war goddess concocted, lying in wait for my appearance. I hope it is everything they were expecting."_

There was a terrible screech as the Parademons relaunched their planet-wide attack, and there was a terrible rain as the ships restarted their bombardment. Directly above, a portal in the bottom of the mothership opened, and from the portal descended a _great_ being.

Darkseid had joined the server.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He remembered the first time something like this had happened. He had just come into his powers, the Omega Sanction, and he had desired an effective test for his new abilities. An old scribe on Apokolips had told him of the Old Gods that resided on a far away planet, and he had gone to that planet, eager for battle.

He had gotten his battle, and he had learned that his strength, in its full capacity, was enough to outmatch twelve Old Gods.

And how he was back here yet again, thousands of years later.

The reason for his presence, previously anyway, had been for a business arrangement with Vandal Savage. However, due to the man being completely unable to fulfill his side of the arrangement, he had taken the matter into his own hands to with as he pleased. And what he pleased were new, powerful soldiers.

Specifically, a set of god-born twins with undying love for one another.

Darkseid descended from his ship, keen on getting what he wanted. He would've preferred the Kryptonian be awake for this, as they had so much unsettled business to attend to, but alas, the cure-tech created by the humans was still working its way through the Starro-tech used by the Light, and so Superman would be incapacitated for at least another Earth hour.

Far longer than the time Darkseid would need to complete his chosen task.

He landed with deceptive gentleness in the middle of the abandoned Times Square, right before the likes of the tiny demigoddess. His Parademons were swarming about the planet, and what heroes there were left and teamed up with what villains there were left in an effort to repel the attack. Futile as it was, Darkseid was impressed with the collective devotion the two sides of the coin showed when faced with a common threat.

If humans as a whole were worth the effort, Darkseid might've considered sparing them, but alas, he had searched through Facebook on his way through the boom tube, and had seen too many of the degenerates that called themselves "furries."

And a cesspool of other idiotic scum that need not be mentioned.

The experience had soured Darkseid's opinions of humanity.

He looked down at the girl before him, and noted that instead of soiling herself or backing away with a trembling lip, she just glared up at him.

"I don't know you, but I can tell you're a butt," Persephone glowered.

"Yes, child. Many in the universe would agree with you that I am a butt, though in time you will call me master."

Darkseid's eyes glowed, preparing to teleport the girl into a cell on Apokolips, when a powerful bolt of lightning slammed into the New God from above. Darkseid was less that impressed, hardly fazed at all by the attack. His eyes remained glowing, and the dreaded Omega Beams were fired. They zigzagged through the air, faster that bullets, and they made contact with the old sky god, blasting him out of the air.

Darkseid smirked. "They've gotten weaker in three thousand years. What a pity."

Then the rest of the ants attacked. Roughly a hundred demigod children from the ages of twelve to twenty-three, accompanied by their assorted divine parents. Unlike three millennia ago, Darkseid was not in a fighting mood. He was still here on business, technically speaking. So, to avoid a pointless fight, he invoked the Omega Sanction, releasing the great power in a massive wave of red energy that vaporized everything it touched on contact for a hundred meters in all directions.

When the wave dissipated, Darkseid was floating in a sphere of empty space one tenth of a kilometer wide in a three-dimensional 360-degree plane.

Then his lips curled back into a very mean smile when the war goddess Athena appeared in front of him, tears of anguish streaming down her face at the loss of most of her children. The Old Gods had managed to teleport themselves to avoid the Omega Effect, but their offspring were not so lucky.

Athena's pain brought sick joy to Darkseid.

Her spear snapped in twine against his chest, and he blasted her away from him with Omega Beams. Artemis and Apollo fired arrows from a distance, but the Omega Beams vaporized them all and struck the archers, making them scream as the energy scorched them before exploding, sending them flying through the air. Vines and roots erupted from the ground, shooting up to ensnare Darkseid, and Ares appeared, broadsword cocked back to deliver a beheading blow.

Omega Beams foiled the war god with ease, and a glow around Darkseid set the flora around him ablaze. The flames raced down to the ground, burning away the roots and vines instantly. A hammer struck the back of Darkseid's head, and he teetered forward slightly, before whipping around with an extended arm. He missed the messenger god, because speed had to account for something, and Darkseid took another blow to the back of his head. He whipped around again, and then Omega Beams raced from his eyes, going backwards.

Hermes screamed as he burned, dropping the hammer Hephaestus had made. He fell to the ground, smoking, and Darkseid looked at the rotund forge god. Leo's father squeaked and flashed away to one of his forges on the opposite side of the continent.

Darkseid mentally counted the gods he had defeated, and since the likes of Hera and Aphrodite were not going to get involved in fighting him, that left only one god to defeat.

Poseidon levitated before the sovereign ruler of Apokolips, righteous fury in his green eyes. "You will not have my daughter."

Darkseid didn't lower himself to speak with such an inferior being as the old god of the sea, and instead blasted him with Omega Beams. A shield appeared around Poseidon, and the Beams did not break it. The glowing energy brightened, and it actually _pushed_ Darkseid's Omega Beams back into his face, where they exploded with such grand force that they sent him flying through air and down the street. He impacted and still had enough momentum to go skidding across the asphalt, going half the length of a football field before the friction brought him to a halt.

Darkseid blinked once. That was unexpected, since all the others had been so easily defeated, and the New God expanded his sensory perception, getting a read on Poseidon. So, based on what he felt, Darkseid deduced that the sea god had been imbued with Hera's and Aphrodite's powers, as they weren't about to fight, and so had boosted Poseidon.

Alright then.

Darkseid got to his feet and popped his neck, then popped his knuckles, releasing a sound like thunder. As the humans said, he was "game." The other Olympians had made the tactical error of staggering their attacks, most likely in the hopes that they would wear him down with each succeeding blow, which obviously failed, but now Poseidon was coming at him full force, and he had the power of two other powerful gods—the Queen of Olympus and the daughter of Ouranos and technically Pontus (as at the time, Oceanus had yet to take control from the Primordial water personification).

Darkseid hadn't come for battle, but things changed all the time.

It had been a long time since he had used physical force to defeat an opponent, and sometimes he felt out of shape, so he reasoned he could use the exercise.

Poseidon appeared before Darkseid, glowing like a star, and threw a punch, slamming his fist into the New God's chin, making him stumble backwards. Poseidon kept the intensity, landing blow after blow, releasing shockwave after shockwave that decimated buildings and infrastructure. With each connection, he knocked Darkseid back a few steps, and he honestly thought he had the invader on the ropes, until one of Darkseid's hands snapped up and caught the next fist.

The shockwave shattered every pane of glass left intact for a mile.

Darkseid smirked. "If your children are even a hundredth as strong as this as they are now, they will be my most powerful servants in time."

He brought his fist down and slung it up, connecting with Poseidon's lower jaw with enough force to send the sea god literally into orbit. The shockwave from the punch was so great that it toppled buildings, and Darkseid just stood there unfazed by the chaos and clamoring all around him as the massive structures of steel and concrete collapsed, sending up gigantic clouds of dust.

Darkseid rose from the madness, unscathed. And then he heard the telltale sounds of something rocketing in from orbit, and he looked up. His eyes actually widened as he was genuinely surprised to see Poseidon was already back. He got hit directly in the middle of his face, square in the middle of his nose, and he went shooting to the ground with so much force that his tailwind blasted away the dust cloud created by the fallen buildings, and he blasted away the debris of the fallen building with his impact with the Earth.

In the air, Poseidon shined brighter than the sun, bathing the whole hemisphere in brilliant green light. He summoned up _all_ the power he had been given by Aphrodite and Hera, as well as his own considerable power, and released all of it in a single concentrated stream of divine energy, all aimed right for Darkseid.

The laser struck home and lit up the Eastern Seaboard. Destruction on a scale the Earth hadn't seen since that meteor came in and wiped out the dinosaurs was unleashed. The whole of Manhattan island was erased in an instant, and the rivers boiled away in the blink of an eye. The shockwave thundered through the surrounding miles of area, sweeping hundreds of buildings from their foundations. The sheer sound was indescribable, and the mushroom cloud towered higher than Olympus.

Parademons were vaporized and the Apokoliptian ships were torn apart in Poseidon's blast.

The sea god eventually ran out of juice, and the results of his final attack was a crater literally the size of Rhode Island, with millions of tons of debris at its edges. The ocean came rushing in from the East, and it took the torrent of water four minutes to fill the crater, and that was really saying something when the flow of the ocean itself took four minutes to fill something.

Poseidon could feel the beaches around the world gain a few more inches of real estate.

He went down to the newest body of water to grace the Earth, and immersed himself in the salty goodness, immediately feeling his strength returning after how much he had spent. It was also with this immersion that came information, such as how Darkseid was alive down there, and very, very unhappy.

The New God rose from the water, and he looked like hammered shit, to put it mildly, but he was still very much functional.

"I am impressed, Poseidon. I didn't think you had the will to sacrifice so many humans, your own children included, just to defeat me."

Even though he was the god of the sea, and he was effectively swimming in sea water, Poseidon was so damn drained of power and energy that he could hardly move. But he could talk, if barely. "No…the others…teleported everyone…away…no one died…"

Darkseid frowned. "Disappointing. Unfortunately, you will not share that fate."

His eyes glowed, and just before he could incinerate the sea god, a blur of motion swooped in and made off with Poseidon. Darkseid released his Omega Beams anyway, and they went zooming across the battlefield. Walls of water shot up to block, but the deadly red energy blasted through all obstacles without stopping. Eventually, they struck home, exploding their target.

Darkseid gave the matter no more thought, and proceeded onward. Now that he had expanded his sense, he detected the twins he had come here for, and he went to them. Calmly, he hovered forward, hands clasped behind his back, dignified, regal, and powerful. Over water and then over land did he go, unimpeded, and unchallenged.

Darkseid blasted through the magic barrier of Camp Half-Blood, and didn't blink an eye at the grounds. Parademons joined their master in invading the camp, but just taking the two children wasn't about to be met without resistance.

Aqualad, Robin, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Superboy, Zatanna, Rocket, Red Arrow, Black Canary, Red Tornado, Arashi, Bullock, Sukina, and Yūwaku all came out to fight. The present gods were too battered to do anything besides let their skin smolder.

"Give me Persephone and Perseus, and all of you will live to see tomorrow," Darkseid said.

"Not gonna happen!" Robin challenged.

"Then die."

There were hundreds of Parademons that had followed their master to the Greek camp, against the ten heroes and four mercenaries. Darkseid needed not concern himself with the humans, for his army attacked. Occupied by the Parademons, the fourteen couldn't do much to the New God, even with the mercenaries bolstering their numbers with their cloning techniques. There were just too many Parademons.

Darkseid descended into the heart of the camp, heading for the cabin that smelled of the sea. There were humans in the other buildings, but the swarming Parademons handled them, and the heroes were being overwhelmed.

Darkseid cared not for a fight at this point. Now, his sole focus was on retrieving the twins, and the commencement of their training as his knights. His plan was for Persephone to command the Furies, and for Perseus to command the armies, and he to command them. Simple, really, and with the two children of Poseidon under his wing, he would go on to conquer all of life, and finally master the Anti-Life Equation.

Darkseid melted down the door to the cabin…and took a laser point-black to his chest that he actually felt, and was sent flying across the courtyard into the adjacent cabin.

Shin'en came stalking out of Cabin Three, his clenched fists glowing with Gale chakra. "Stay away from my sister!"

Parademons screeched and flew in for the attack, and Shin'en's fists glowed brighter.

"Gale Style: Laser Circus!"

And what a circus it was. Dozens of lasers streamed away from the boy's hands, each of them just as fast as Darkseid's Omega Beams, and they twisted and curved and turned and raced through the air in all directions, cleaving through Parademons like they were made of melting butter. With just a single jutsu, Shin'en cut down all but three of the enemy force, and those last two Parademons were cut down by Yūwaku and Bullock.

The lasers all came around, converging on Cabin Four, and it exploded in a dazzling orchestra of light and sound.

The heroes and Yūrei gathered around Shin'en, all of them a little worse for wear due to endless onslaught of now-dead Parademons leaving some cuts, bruises, and torn clothes.

Shin'en went through a few Hand Seals, and then spread his arms, palms pointed at the fire. "Gale Style: Reflex Cannon."

Streams of chakra traveled the length of his arms, then a spark danced in front of his hands, and then a beam the width of the Empire State Building exploded from Shin'en's outstretched limbs, carving through the ground and erasing Cabin Four. The stream of chakra continued to tear through the ground, shooting all the way across the landmass to the water on the opposite coast.

Shin'en cancelled the flow, and the chakra laser lost cohesion and fizzled out. Left in its wake was a half-moon trench of smoldering glass, and no sign of Darkseid.

"Did we get him?" Kid Flash asked.

It was silent for a little bit, and then Shin'en turned around so fast that air was barely able to get out of the way in time. "SEPHY!"

Inside the confines of Cabin Three, Darkseid was there, having teleported using his Omega Effect. Using that same power, his eyes glowed and the dreaded beams shot out, striking true on Persephone. With a scream, she vanished in a flash of light.

The world came to a halt.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

No, Darkseid had not just killed the girl. That would've been completely counterproductive to his plan of her leading his Furies. What he had done was use his Omega Beams to teleport the girl across time and space to a cell on Apokolips.

Unfortunately, no matter how you looked at it, there was no way to tell if he done that, or if he had just incinerated Shin'en's big sister, and that's wherein the problem lied. The boy truly was emotionally unstable, never ever having been counseled about the deaths of his orphan family, or given therapy on how to cope with it, and the machinations Yūrei had wrought, with their brainwashing and conditioning, had done nothing but make Shin'en's psyche worse.

And it was a good thing this little crossover was non-canon, but the resulting backlash of divine power that poured from Shin'en as he Awakened…completely obliterated the atoms of the Team, the humans, the Parademon corpses, his mother, and most importantly—

Shin'en also accidentally killed Yūrei.

All of them. In the blink of an eye.

As for the fight between Shin'en and Darkseid, it was short. The New God was already weakened from Poseidon's attack, and the Laser Circus had done its own great number on him as well. There was also the ocean right behind Cabin Three, which did nothing but bolster Shin'en's raging powers, powers that were affecting the Earth on a global scale, unleashing hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, and all manner of natural disasters.

In the Watchtower, the Justice League remained blissfully unconscious and unaware of the devastation ravaging their home as the cure-tech continued to work against the Starro-tech.

In the end, the civilizations of Earth were almost completely destroyed, the human population reduced from over seven billion, to a little over a hundred million, and Shin'en beat Darkseid nearly to death with nothing but his bare hands, and nearly to death wasn't enough. His emotions drained out quickly, and Darkseid took a cheap shot with his Omega Beams.

The original plan was for the boy to lead his armies alongside his sister leading the Furies, but after this humiliation, Darkseid felt it better to _kill_ Shin'en, and kill him he did. Then he returned to Apokolips and began the training of Persephone as leader of his guard, only for her emotional devastation at feeling her brother's death through the ether to hinder her completely, pissing Darkseid off, and she ended up as food for the Parademons.

Then this whole broken dimension and everyone in it was erased entirely.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sorry about that, Presence," Chaos shrugged, "but you know how humans are."

"Agreed. I'm just glad this whole thing was able to so smoothed over without too much hassle."

Chaos smiled. "Of course. Anyway, Monopoly Man, I've got my own multiverse to run. Good day."

The Presence vanished, and Chaos popped his neck before looking at you.

"What? This is a DelayedInspiration fic. Were you really expecting a happy ending?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Well, were you?**_

 _ **Anyway, school starts this Wednesday, the 23**_ _ **rd**_ _ **of January for those in the future, and I've got no idea what free time I'll have when faced with homework for Calculus and Chemistry, on top of work every evening.**_

 _ **I think it will all work out though.**_

 _ **Back to**_ **Blood War** _ **canon next chapter, and I hope you enjoyed all the fun, because there isn't much fun left.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	35. A Disgusting Family

_A Disgusting Family_

 _ **I have to get some concerns off my chest.**_ **Backup Plan** _ **grossed over 700 Follows and over 800 Favs.**_ **Blood War** _ **has grossed in the mid-200s in both categories, and we're already on Chapter 35; rough estimate, maybe 20 chapters left before the actual war ends, and I move on to some small stuff not seen in the Twins arc and Xenophobic arc of**_ **Backup Plan** _ **.**_

 _ **My concern is that not many people have got on with this story as the prequel, and even less will get on with the sequel, in which the Giant War and Fourth Great Ninja War happen. It's not really so much the lack of numbers that concern me, it's the possible reasons behind the lack of numbers.**_

 _ **So, just what happened to where so many people were eager for a**_ **Backup Plan** _ **sequel that was all about the Blood War, but they all didn't come back for it?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _Back in the Mist, during my tenure with Y_ _ūrei, we got contracted to find a dog—just a random stray dog found anywhere, but it had to be a big dog. Finding the dog wasn't hard, and dropping it off wasn't difficult. Easiest fifty thousand we ever made. Then, about four days later, the man's wife comes calling."_

-Shin'en Yūrei, _Backup Plan_ chapter 42

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _August 3, 1011 A.S._

Just missions, missions, missions. Dozens of dead people. People everywhere. Dead. Dead people everywhere. Nothing truly worthy of note, some kids, a few babies, most of it was just adults. There were a few courier missions, delivering some people in and out of slavery. Usual stuff.

There were some dreams, too, just some random stuff Sephy was doing.

Right now, Shin'en was in Sukina's bed, both of them enjoying a night of rest away from the blood and the suffering. They were spooning, for lack of a better description, with Sukina being the big spoon, her arms wrapped around the waist of the little boy with his back nuzzled against her bosom.

Both of them shot wide awake, however, when Arashi opened the door so carefully that not a sound was made. There wasn't even a flood of light, as no lights were on in the hall, and there wasn't a moon out to glow.

Sukina and Shin'en both looked silently at their leader.

"We've got a mission. Suit up."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Are you serious?" Shin'en said flatly as he and the others sped through tree branches and eventually over swampy plains. "You got us all together just to capture a random stray dog?"

"A _large_ random stray dog," Arashi corrected with a sniff. "There is a difference between a large random stray dog, and a random stray dog."

"Oh, well, my apologies, but you didn't answer my question."

"Considering the circumstances, I thought the answer to your question was obvious. Your question was 'you got us all together just to capture a random stray dog,' and since all five of us are together, your answer is right before you."

"A simple 'yes' would've been just fine."

"True, but where would mankind be if the answers were always just given to them?"

"Unburdened by ignorance?" Shin'en tried.

"Eh, probably," Arashi said.

Silence fell between the five, with Sukina, Bullock, and Yūwaku all sharing a smile at the interaction.

Shin'en broke the silence soon after by asking, "Have you thought at all what the client wants a big dog for?"

"They want a pet."

"They could to literally any shelter and get one for a twentieth of our fee."

"Yes, yes they could."

Shin'en waited for something of a more elaborate answer, and when he got none, he sighed. "This person wants a big dog for a bestiality thing, don't they?"

"Most likely."

"That still doesn't explain why they're going through us. They could still just get one from a shelter and not bother us with something so dumb."

"Hey, money is money, and if they want to be dumb and pay our fee just for a stray dog, then we're happy to oblige. Besides, think positively. Maybe they really do just want a pet."

"Arashi," Shin'en deadpanned, "when has thinking positively ever worked out for us?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The nearest city was a rundown place, more of a town than an actual city, and it was teeming with waste and refuse, undesirables, poverty, disease, etc. It was one of those places that experienced the worst of the war, with trade being cut off and crime settling in.

Finding a large enough stray dog was easy enough, capturing it was also just as easy, and the only real hard part was carrying the smelly animal to the drop point the client had specified.

The whole way there, Bullock was very displeased with feeling the dog's shaft against his body, which did nothing but earn the amusement of Sukina and Yūwaku.

"Hey, just be happy it's _on_ you and not _in_ you," the orangette said.

"Small favors," Bullock muttered.

Shin'en tilted his head to the side. "What _does_ it feel like to have one in you?"

There was a little bit of silence as Yūrei took the time to actually comprehend the fact that a ten-year-old boy just asked them what it feels like to have a penis inside you, and there were just so many different answers to that question.

Yūwaku took first bat. "Well, for a girl that's ready, a penis inside her vagina feels really good."

"What happens when she's _not_ ready?"

"It hurts."

"Why?"

"Wetness. If a girl's wet enough, it feels good. If she's not wet enough, it's dry on the inside and rubs really bad."

"Oh…how do you make a girl wet enough?"

"We'll talk more about that later, because that's a really in-depth conversation."

"Oh, okay….What about a penis in your butt? What does that feel like?"

"It's terrible," Yūwaku shuddered. "The inside of the butt is for nothing but poop. There aren't any pleasure nerves in there, and anyone who says anal feels good is a liar. That, and it's nasty. Don't you _ever_ put your penis in a girl's butt."

"…okay," Shin'en said after failing to figure out why poop was so nasty when compared to someone's entrails. "What about a boy's butt? Is that any different than a girl's butt?"

"Typically," Sukina said, "a boy's butt is a lot harrier than a girl's butt, and all that hair retains heat, which makes a boy's butt hotter, and sweatier. Boys also don't wipe their butts very good, and so they get stains in their underwear, and they have some poop left in their butt hair."

After all that, Shin'en chirped, "I don't have any stains in my underwear."

"Nope, because you do a good job!" Sukina fell back to Shin'en, and patted his head. "I know two other boys who could learn something from you."

Arashi and Bullock both looked over their shoulders, and even though their masks had sadistic grins painted on them, the deadpan gaze was still powerfully felt.

"I don't think I need to remind you about _that_ time," the leader said, talking to Sukina.

Apparently, she knew just what _that_ time was, because Shin'en detected a rush of blood to her face, and heard the indignation in her voice when she next spoke.

"That was for a mission involving a target with a scat fetish. A one-time thing."

"Except those other four times," Bullock said.

"All for missions!"

"Yeah, but you never complained about it."

"Complaining about the situation of a mission is pointless. Besides, at least it wasn't in a diaper, like Yūwaku does."

"That's because one of our informants has a daddy kink, and the only payment he accepts is me roleplaying with him," the blonde said.

Shin'en's eyes fluttered behind his mask. "We have an informant…that makes you poop…in diapers?"

"Yes." The stiffness of the answer made it very clear that she _did not_ like this informant.

"I'm going to kill him," Shin'en said simply.

All of Yūrei had no problems with him doing that, but it was a matter of timing. The informant was a useful man, after all.

After that lovely conversation of sex education and fetishes, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist decided that was enough talking for the time being.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Delivery was easy, and the money was counted and deemed good, so Yūrei simply left the dog to his new owner.

The next four days saw the typical assassination and killing, and would've carried in a similar manner indefinitely, until Yūrei was contracted by the wife of their previous hire regarding the dog. The Ghosts met in person to conduct business.

The woman looked haggard, her eyes red and her face gaunt. She was pale, her hair in a frizzy mess, and she smelled terrible, like sweat and body odor and other things. She looked traumatized.

" _You wanted to speak with us_?" Arashi asked, his voice distorted by his mask.

"Y-Yes, m-my husband, h-he hired you to bring him a d-dog, and you did, a-and I just found out that he-he's been using it to…to…" the woman's eyes watered, and she fell to her knees and hands. "My babies," she sobbed, "my babies…"

On the outside, none of the Ghosts were moved. Much was the same on the inside.

" _I take it you would like for us to do something about this?"_ Arashi asked flatly.

The woman looked up. "Yes. I…I…want you…" she swallowed and steeled herself. "I want you to kill my husband and the dog so I can take my children and leave this place."

" _Money?"_ Arashi asked.

The woman produced a scroll. "It's all Sealed inside, I promise. That's one shinobi thing I know how to do."

Arashi took the scroll and tossed it to Bullock. The wire-user did some things with the scroll, then he un-Sealed it, causing a flood of ryō notes to come pouring out. Bullock looked at the pile at his feet, then looked up and flashed a double thumbs-up.

He re-Sealed all the cash and Arashi nodded. " _Consider it done. Take your kids and leave."_

"Just like that?" the woman asked, completely flabbergasted at how simple this was.

" _Just like that,"_ Arashi confirmed.

He and the Ghosts vanished, and the woman heaved a sob of pure, genuine joy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They infiltrated the house with ease, and Shin'en plunged the kunai directly into the heart of the man, and Sukina stabbed the dog's brain with a senbon. The whole thing took less than ten minutes, getting to the location, doing the deed, and leaving.

The whole world continued to spin, and for the seven days, Yūrei continued to make the world go 'round. Not a single day off the whole time, and every day brought forth death and money. Nothing noteworthy happened, just rudimentary killings. Things were getting boring and monotonous up until the seventh day, when a peculiar request came in.

Yūrei was there to answer.

"I take it all of you are the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist?" the man asked.

He looked like the dog guy Yūrei had killed a week ago.

The five ninja, dressed in full regalia and in plane sight to anyone that wanted to look, all looked at the man with their grinning masks that hid their true expressions.

" _Yes,_ " Arashi said.

"Oh, good. Do you remember a week ago, a woman had you kill her husband and his dog so she could make away with the kids?"

" _Mm-hm_."

"Oh, good. Well, that man was my brother, and that woman my sister-in-law, and those two kids my niece and nephew. I've got ten million ryō right here, all up front, for you to find that woman, kill her, and bring those kids back to me."

" _Okay. Money,_ " Arashi commanded, hand out.

A scroll was given over, handed to Yūwaku, counted, deemed good, the money re-Sealed, and Yūrei vanished from the visible spectrum of light because the civilian man did not have cognitive awareness to follow their movements.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This is dumb," Shin'en asserted. "First we get paid to get a guy a dog—because he's going to use it on his own kids—then we get paid by the guy's wife to kill him and the dog so she can take the kids and flee, and now we're getting paid by the man's brother to kill the wife and bring the kids back to him. Not only are we really doing this, we're doing it without question, and for money."

"Ten million is a lot," Arashi said. "Through us, the Rebellion is actually well-funded, and well-equipped. New weapons, new armor, new medical supplies, new clothes, teachers—because of us, the tide of the war is slowly turning, with Mei having the resources to put up a better fight and take Yagura down so the bloodline users won't be hunted and exterminated. Despite what we're doing, it's for a good cause."

"So, does that mean that motive justifies method?"

"Absolutely," Arashi said, and he said it with such calm finality that Shin'en felt asking him to explain was unnecessary, for he himself, through Arashi's simple confidence in the one-word answer, was also convinced of the question's answer.

And no one else in Yūrei argued or debated, or even attempted to play Devil's Advocate.

"Oh…okay."

The woman had travelled to a port town and was attempting passage away from the Land of Water, as Yūrei easily found out within an hour, and the just as easily located her and her children. Even though this woman was pure, and her intentions pure, Shin'en still rammed a kunai into her heart, and Bullock clocked the children, a set of fraternal twins of eight years, with the barest trace of his wire, the chemicals upon which both paralyzed and knocked them out.

After that, Yūwaku processed the woman's corpse, skinning it, packing the organs, the blood, the bones, and the rest for sale on the black market. Then Yūrei loaded up the kids and took off for the drop point their client was paying them to deliver the kids to.

Shin'en didn't feel right.

"We could've let them live and escape, and just brought a couple of fakes back. It's not like that's beneath us or we can't do it, because lying and dishonorable stuff is our job description."

"And what happens when the fakes are discovered?" Arashi asked. "Such treachery could bring about a lot of unwanted attention, and it's bad for business."

Shin'en's deadpan was felt through his grinning mask. "Our business is murder and thievery. Even if we didn't have missions rolling in, we'd just plan a big heist or go on a looting spree, or even better: be the good guys and go take down prostitution rings and slavery and stuff like it, packaging up all the dead bodies for black market sale."

The demigod was right, of course. There were many ways Yūrei could make money outside of their contracts, and there were many ways to go about completing a contract without bringing about unnecessary bloodshed, like what had just happened. Arashi, Sukina, Yūwaku, and Bullock didn't really care about what they contracted to do at this point, as they were all highly morally disengaged and emotionally detached to almost all things.

Shin'en was not, at least not yet, and he still clung to innocence, in a way. Really, it was his inborn nature of being a hero at work, a hero that saved the day and was good to the people. Not good qualities for an assassin/mercenary.

But to the demigod's point of alternate methods, there was no viable counter argument. He was completely right; Yūrei could've let the woman live and forged a couple of fake bodies—they had the means to do so. Besides that, it was fairly obvious to the Ghosts what the hell was going on here. No self-respecting uncle _wanted_ his niece and nephew, especially not after he finds out his sister-in-law hired assassins to kill his own brother while also knowing about what his brother had hired those same assassins to do for him.

Yūrei was caught in the middle of one of the many Illegal Sex Rings of the Land of Water.

Who have you covered.

"You're right, Shin'en," Arashi said. "We could've very well let her live and make forgeries, and then we could still very well go on and kill our client and all his affiliates, completely covering things up, or sending a message to everyone else in the underground."

"Then why didn't we?"

"Because we're the bad guys."

"I thought there weren't any good guys or bad guys in war. Just guys."

Arashi came to a stop on a branch, his squad all stop with him among the foliage. Shin'en stopped next to him and had to look up.

The leader of Yūrei, by shinobi standards, was an absolute beast of a man. Towering above six feet, with muscle mass that rivaled that of Killer Bee, Arashi could very well be considered a white Raikage. His body was one built for overwhelming power and strength, and for tanking attacks. He was agile or lithe, but stocky and brutish. Arashi was a _monster_ of a man.

The leader of Yūrei looked down at the boy, and had the passing, nasty thought that Shin'en wouldn't have to dip down very far to give him a blowjob, but Arashi pushed such a thought out of his head with a mental scream. He repressed a shudder at his thought, and cursed himself for having seen so much shit that his mind even had such thoughts.

He reached out and gently rubbed Shin'en's head with palpable affection. Arashi got down on a knee, and brought his forehead and the boy's together.

"You are a good person, Shin'en. No matter what you do, no matter how many people you kill, no matter who you kill or why you kill them, just remember that you are a _good person_ , and you always will be a _good person_."

Arashi stood tall and resumed the journey, Yūrei following suite.

As they sped through the trees, Shin'en thought to himself, remembering all the things he had done when training in the Cloud, all the people he tortured and killed, the suffering he caused, the pain he brought, all the things he had done thus far in the Land of Water, and he wondered:

' _If I'm such a good person, why do I keep doing bad things?'_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūrei delivered the children to their uncle, and that was that. Shin'en was fed up with this crap now, all this back and forth mission stuff, and he had half a mind to kill the informant who kept bringing them these mission from these same people, but Arashi, Yūwaku, Bullock and Sukina all firmly put their feet down with a firm "no."

Shin'en just crossed his arms at their rebuttal, and pouted. "You're all a bunch of butts."

Three days passed, and only one mission went through, just because it involved some travelling. They were paid to discredit a local politician, and discredit her they did, ensuring the opponent (Yūrei's employer) would win the election, which they did. The Ghosts of the Blood Mist even got a little bit of a bonus for their efforts, a gift of gratitude from the elected official. Upon their return home, Yūrei received a mission from the _sister_ of the woman they had killed a few days ago, and Shin'en almost blew a hole in the roof.

He was just really annoyed now, like anyone would be if they kept having to go back and forth to do the same basic thing. However, the breaking of the mold with this mission was that the woman didn't have any money to give.

Truthfully, Arashi was also rather annoyed with this back and forth shenanigans.

"Please," the woman begged. "You don't understand what's being done to them!"

" _Then explain, please_ ," Arashi said flatly.

"Their father, whom you killed, his whole family is involved in an illegal prostitution ring focusing around pedophilic bestiality. He and his brothers sire children for the sole purpose of having them raped by animals. I-I can prove it, too!"

The woman fumbled with her pockets, eventually producing a flash drive. "On there is almost ten gigabytes of porn showing what I told you."

Arashi took the hardware and tossed it to Sukina, who caught it, un-Sealed her laptop, plugged the drive in, accessed it, and brought up the contents. The air was then filled with literal animalistic grunting, and pained, high-pitched screams. Sukina shut down her laptop and gave Arashi a thumbs-up in support of the woman's case.

" _Okay, then. Since you don't have any money to give us, but provided us with this information, we'll compromise and take the intel as payment."_

"Y-You will?" The woman's eyes watered. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! Please, bring my niece and nephew to this place, and I'll take care of everything from there!"

Arashi nodded, and Yūrei vanished into the ether.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Tracking down where the uncle was located wasn't hard, and took less than thirty minutes to get there from where they already were. Arriving at the building, and discovering the scene therein, was the true cause for concern.

Shin'en had his arms crossed and was giving Arashi a pointed look, which Arashi pointedly ignored.

"The contract calls for retrieval only; no killing."

Shin'en's pointed look got pointier.

"You can kill the animals."

Shin'en's look got less pointy.

Yūrei attacked, throwing in shuriken that Transformed into Sealing tags that released anesthetic gas, knocking everyone present unconscious. Sukina scooped up the female twin, the older sister, and vacated the premises. Shin'en cut apart every animal present, even the horses, ignoring their pleas for mercy as he did so.

Their mercy was a quick death.

Arashi cast a long look at the younger twin brother. The boy's rectum was split open, blood all over the floor around him, his intestines dangling out of his anus. The boy was obviously dead, and judging by the dried blood on one of the horse's shafts, the boy had been raped to death by an equine penis.

A horrible way to go.

Arashi walked over and put his hand over the boy's eyes, closing them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The girl was sick, that was very clear. There was damage to her own colon, meaning she had her own anal encounter with an animal, not one large enough to kill her, but one large enough to cause injury all the same. She had an infection, was running a fever, and had already voided waste.

It was nothing more than a bloody, runny, gunk.

The girl's maternal aunt was over the moon to have her niece, and heartbroken to learn that her nephew was dead. Yūrei spared the woman the gory details.

Their job done, the Ghosts of the Blood Mist left.

On their way back to their hideout, Shin'en made sure everyone knew he was unhappy.

"We should have killed every single one of them, and then burned their corpses, and then we should have thrown the ashes into a hurricane, that way they'd get blown all over Earth, and their spirits would never know peace."

"If we did that with every sex ring we broke up, the world's population might see a small crisis," Arashi said.

"You're the one who keeps saying that death is the kindest gift we can ever give to someone, so I don't see the problem."

Arashi just sighed. There was no way he could make Shin'en see things the way he and the rest of Yūrei did. The boy was still young, and despite it almost being a year since he joined, he was still inexperienced. He was a little hot still, and subconsciously fighting against the programming that had been put into him.

The goal of the Ghosts had been for Shin'en to be a docile little thing that was glued to Sukina and relied on positive reinforcement from them all. He was glued to Sukina alright, and he did seek recognition and approval for things that he did, but he was still a spitfire; he still had independent thought, which was clearly being displayed right now.

The motive behind Yūrei's actions was to spare Shin'en the trauma of the job. By completely making him to where his emotions and emotional reactions just flowed through him like a river—not get bottled up—he'd just take everything in stride, unquestioning and uncaring.

There was nothing that could be done about this now, however, and things were only going to change with time.

"It doesn't matter, Shin'en," Arashi said calmly. "What matters is what I say, and I said no killing. You don't need a reason or an explanation, only to follow orders as I give them."

"Your orders are _shit_."

The leader of Yūrei came to a complete stop, and the air thickened. The youngest Ghost stopped too, and he looked up into the mask of the towering, muscle-bound shinobi.

"Do something," the demigod challenged. "I'll paint this whole area with your blood."

Arashi stared down his nose at the pint-sized ninja, very, very impressed with the balls being shown. Despite the clear insubordination, the Uzumaki in disguise only felt soaring admiration in regards to the boy, and if he was being honest, paternal pride. It almost made Arashi cry at the thought, as he hadn't felt anything paternal since his own children.

Still, he was the commander of Yūrei Squad, and he still had his job to do.

"Shin'en Yūrei, you will not speak further of any matters other than different styles of hair with Sukina. That is an order, and that is my final word."

His piece said, Arashi took off again, feeling happy for the first time in a long time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Something's not right," Shin'en said, two days after the retrieval mission.

Yūrei was lounging about the daimyo's forgotten summer home, doing their own little things.

"There is an extensive list of things that are not right," Bullock said. "You're going to need to be a little more specific."

"So, you remember that string of mission we got, with the guy and his dog, then his wife, then his brother, then the wife's sister? Well, we got through all that trouble to get those kids back and forth, with the uncle paying us a ton, and then we take the kids from him, and then he hadn't contracted us to get his niece back."

" _Yet_ ," Bullock stressed, "hasn't contracted _yet_."

Shin'en shook his head. "With how much he paid, and what those kids were being used for, he would've contracted us in a heartbeat to get the girl back. Something's not right."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"I'm gonna take a nap," Shin'en said, putting his fist into his hand to punctuate himself.

"Make sure you go potty first," Yūwaku said, teasing. "We don't want to wash any tinkle-sheets."

Shin'en blew a raspberry at her, and was soon occupying his bed, and was even sooner using his divine Essence Projection technique to see those important plot points. He couldn't see everything he wanted to see, but he saw enough. He awoke, and went on a warpath.

"Where you going, kiddo?" Sukina asked.

" _Out_."

The crisp response left no room for questioning, not that Shin'en gave his second family any time. He disassembled himself into water particles, and went shooting through the air, his essence going hundreds of miles an hour. Shin'en reassembled minutes later at his destination, a big, big house in a remote countryside pasture, and he gave no warning or preamble.

He un-Sealed the Lightning Blades and cut down the samurai mercenaries outside, and walked right in through the front doors, crashing a meeting.

As it turns out, the maternal aunt and the paternal uncle were married, and both sides of the family were all involved in the bestiality ring, with the mother being the only one that wanted out, and to lead a normal life elsewhere, having been subject to bestiality herself in her youth, and not wanting the same fate for her children.

Shin'en walked in right in the middle of an argument.

"We should use a bear! Bears are hardly ever used!"

"Have you seen a bear's penis? It's a very small thing, and trying to do it doggy style would just crush the girl. We should use a cow, that's hardly ever used, and the penis is more viable for use."

Shin'en spared a brief moment to marvel at how such a conversation could be had with such seriousness, before he let his anger at irritation at this whole debacle boil over, and he went to work, slicing and dicing people left and right, until all that was left was a little girl chained to a pole, slowly dying of disease.

She looked up at Shin'en with broken, defeated eyes.

"Please," she rasped, voice hoarse, "please kill me…"

Persephone's little brother didn't hesitate in granting that request.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Right, college sucks. With calculus every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, that means I get homework all of those days, and with chemistry labs every Tuesday and Thursday, with the teacher assigning his own homework, including, but not limited to, pre-lab reports, that means I have a ton of shit to do before I get my schedule cleared out for writing.**_

 _ **So, I've been stressing slightly for no other reason than I make writing a priority, and I get crazed with my workload and trying to get it all done ASAP.**_

 _ **So you guys had better leave lots of Reviews for this chapter and those coming, because I work my ass off for you people!**_

 _ ***Inhale***_

 _ ***Exhale***_

 _ **So how was the chapter? A little wordy with exposition, and the meat was a story that Shin'en talked about with Kisame, Sasori, and Deidara all the way back in**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, which was referenced in the quote way above. The main focus of this chapter was to show how Shin'en is starting to get fed up with things, about how he's reaching his breaking point to where he just screws it all over and goes after Yagura.**_

 _ **This is the new arc we're in, the Breaking Point arc.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	36. The Torture of Harumiya Suzuhi

_The Torture of Harumiya Suzuhi_

 _ **Welcome back, everyone, and thanks for the Reviews last chapter. It made all the struggle worth it.**_

 _ **Gatou the Torturer is the main focus of this chapter, and how his actions bleed into Shin'en's mind, bringing with them stress, which furthers the Breaking Point.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO, or any references/parodies

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _The organization that I was working for required information, information that was stored in the mind of a tight-lipped fifteen-year-old girl with a generous amount of pain tolerance."_

Shin'en Yūrei, chapter 81 of _Backup Plan_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _December 18, 1011 A.S._

Shin'en's eleventh birthday came and went in the blink of an eye, and the only celebration there was involved a mission to blow up a struggling settlement so a real estate tycoon could use the land to build a resort.

Other than that, it was the usual killings, with Yagura contracting the Ghosts to end a battle between some greenhorns and more experienced Rebel soldiers, knowing that the five ninja would kill everyone present, regardless of affiliation. As such, sacrificing some idiot kids in exchange for several strong Rebel shinobi was a worthy exchange in Yagura's mind, and Shin'en's blood boiled at having done a mission for the short dictator.

Anyway, that was two months ago.

Now it was approaching the end of December, and the Ghosts had captured an informant that allegedly had intel regarding a highly illegal sex operation, and it was Mei Terumi herself that had ordered Yūrei to interrogate the informant, as it was her order for the ninja to find this sex operation, and shut it down.

Miles away from the hideout, in their torture dungeon, Yūrei had the informant tied to a table, a sensory deprivation device on their head, and a full-body straight jacket covering their figure. While no one could've been able to tell the gender of the person due to all the coverings, Shin'en's hydro-sensing, acute enough to feel the water inside of organic cells, knew this person to be a female in her mid-teens.

"Alright," Arashi said to the demigod. "She's all yours, kid."

In the torture chamber, there were several dozen jugs of water ready to go.

Shin'en nodded, and then went very still. He suddenly shuddered, and his body warped into the exact same shape it was before.

Gatou stretched his arms over his head and arched his back with an exaggerated yawn. "Oh, God almighty, I thought he had forgotten about me. So, if I'm out, I take this little gem is mine to play with?"

"Mm-hm," Arashi hummed.

"Cool. Is this a real interrogation, or are we making a scare-video for someone?"

"Real interrogation. She allegedly has information regarding a sex ring that revolves around children below the age of twelve."

"Oh, pedophilia. Old news. What I want to see is a sex ring revolving around old people and Viagra, just to mix things up."

"Give it enough time, and I'm sure we'll find one eventually."

"One can only hope. So," Gatou clapped his hands together, "did y'all want to stay here and watch, or were y'all going to go do something else?"

"There are some other things we need to do elsewhere," Arashi answered. "Take your time, and we'll see if the information she gives is accurate after you get it."

"Got'cha. Have fun doing whatever it is you guys do when not watching me make torture porn."

Yūrei left Gatou to do his thing, none of them really interested in watching an eleven-year-old boy torture a teenage girl literally to death, and then resuscitate her every time he goes overboard.

The Torturer aspect of Shin'en's personality grabbed the clipboard with a paper attached that had some rudimentary information, and he took off the sensory deprivation device on the girl. She wasn't knocked out, and with he device off, her brown hair and eyes became visible.

She looked at Gatou and sighed in relief. "Oh, good. It's just a kid this time. I suppose we'll be together for a few hours until your mommy comes and takes you away for either your potty break or your diaper change."

Gatou snorted, then hit the girl across the jaw with the clipboard.

Then he started reading off it. "Name: Harumiya Suzuhi."

He hit her across the jaw again.

"Gender: female."

He hit her again.

She grinned with bloodstained teeth due to her gums being busted. "Gender is a concept."

Gatou hit her with the clipboard. "I agree. It's a simple one with two parts."

He hit her.

"Age: fifteen."

Gatou slapped that clipboard across Harumiya's face like there was no tomorrow. He proceeded to list other facts from the paper on the clipboard, punctuating each one with a blow, until he ran out of things to say and then slapped Harumiya so hard that he broke the clipboard.

Blood was dripping frivolously from her lips, as they and the gums had both been busted open by the blunt force. To her credit, Harumiya looked unphased by the attacks.

"So," Gatou said, "now that I know who you are, it's only fair that you know who I am…eh, fuck fairness. You've got information that I want, and I'm going to get it."

"Well, we don't always get what we want, kiddo. So sorry."

Behind his mask, Gatou's grin matched the painted smile. "I agree, but you see…the sooner you tell me everything you know about the Sunny-Side Up Children's Home, the sooner you don't have to worry about me."

Gatou held up a hammer and a set of nails.

"First question: does that place really traffic children into the sex trade?"

"I don't know, maybe."

Gatou chuckled and placed the nail at Harumiya's kneecap, and brought the hammer down three times, plunging the nail all the way up to the surface into Harumiya's leg. Each strike came with a pained yell. Gatou moved to the other side, and had another nail ready to go.

Harumiya was breathing heavily, blood dripping down her leg, sweat beading across her forehead.

"Right, let's stick to simple yes or no answers. So, orphanage, kids, sex trade, yes or no?"

Harumiya clamped her mouth shut.

Gatou shrugged, and hammered a nail into the girl's other kneecap, making her scream.

"Whew, that looked like it really hurt. You should know I'm going to keep nailing you until I get my answers, and you should know that if you lie to me, what I do next will be so much worse, but if you tell me the truth, I can make all the pain go away, and you can continue your life as it was going. Or I can just kill you at the end and bring all your suffering to a close. Your choice. So, orphanage, kids, sex trade, yes or no?"

Harumiya kept quiet.

"Damn, you are tight-lipped. But why though? What could possibly drive you to protect a sex ring revolving around children?"

No answer was given, so Gatou kept probing, analyzing heartrate, chemical levels in the bloodstream, and facial tics.

"Is it a sibling you're protecting? A brother and/or sister that's caught in the trade? Is it a parent? A friend? A lover? A pet?"

Harumiya gave nothing away.

"Is there a Curse Mark on you? Is there a Sealing jutsu you've been branded with that prevents you from answering questions about the orphanage?"

Nothing.

"Have you been brainwashed?"

Something.

"Have you been conditioned since birth to completely and utterly loyal to those you serve?"

Harumiya's heart skipped a beat, and either she was very, very skilled in giving false bodily signals, or Gatou had just struck gold. He decided to think positively, and moved on.

"Now that's a real fucking shame. If you were protecting someone or had a Curse Mark, we could've very well reached an agreement, but since you're keeping that mouth shut out of loyalty, I'll just have to pry it open with pain."

Harumiya slowly turned her head to look Gatou in the designs of his mask.

"Do your worst, you little bastard. I've been trained to resist pain and torture since I could walk. There's nothing you can do to me that hasn't been done already."

Silence pervaded the chamber at the declaration, before Gatou chuckled something so deep that the light flickered.

"I'll take that as a challenge. Here's what we're going to do: I'm going to take as long as I need to break you, and once you're broken, we'll get back to the questioning. Sound good?"

"Sound fucking _great_."

Gatou smiled savagely under his mask. "Then let's get started."

He had six nails in total, two of which were already in Harumiya's knees, and so he took two more and hammered them into her shin, walked over and did the same to the other leg, breaking bone like it was glass. All the while Harumiya screamed in pain, but Gatou wasted no time with questions.

True to his word, he was going to break the girl. He was going to inflict every kind of pain he could think of, probably even come up with new pains. And he was going to enjoy it, for he was Gatou the Torturer, a split personality made for the sole purpose of torturing people, and bearing the whole brunt of the guilt and trauma associated with inflicting such terrible pain on people.

But there couldn't be any guilt or trauma when you were doing something you _enjoyed_.

With the nails imbedded in Harumiya's bones, Gatou produced a serrated knife one would typically use for cutting steaks at the dinner table, and tore free the straight jacket from around the teen's nether regions, and he held the knife in reverse grip. Without a laugh, he started sawing away at Harumiya's vulva, using chakra to make the knife rapidly go up and down without having to make any motion himself.

Harumiya howled in agony as she was mutilated, but she couldn't move due to the paralysis seal. She could scream just fine, though, obviously. Gatou mercilessly sawed all through the entirety of Harumiya's vaginal structure, going all the way up to just below her belly button. The girl's head was lolling about, her eyes drooping shut, and she was muttering nonsense.

She was close to passing out, and then dying.

Gatou slapped her cheek. "Hey now, no quitting on me just yet. We've got a long way to go before we're done."

With dilating pupils and bloodshot eyes, Harumiya was able to hold Gatou's gaze. "Go fuck yourself…" she muttered with surprising cohesiveness.

Then her eyes shut and she stilled.

The demigod tilted his head to the side. With a bit of hydrokinesis, he busted open one of the water jugs and brought a quart over. He then willed it to mend the damage to Harumiya's vulva, speed up her marrow's production of red blood cells, and clear her bloodstream of adrenaline and endorphins, effectively revitalizing her.

Harumiya jolted awake with a sharp gasp. Her eyes darted around, and eventually she found Gatou again, and she swallowed. "What just…?"

"Put it this way: you are in Hell, and I am the Devil. Welcome, child, to what I affectionately refer to as Round Dos."

Gatou held up the hammer, and hooked the teeth around one of the nails—all six of which were still imbedded in Harumiya's legs—and declared: "Let us begin."

And then Gatou started yanking the nails out of Harumiya's legs one by one, and she screamed and screamed, and produced enough sweat to fill a bathtub. After Gatou had pulled out all the nails, he ripped away the straight jacket covering Harumiya Suzuhi's chest, exposing her breasts to the warm air of the torture chamber, and he hammered a nail each directly into each of her nipples, and hammered the other four into strategic places about the teen's breast.

With a cackle, Gatou grabbed one of the nails and started jimmying it around, which made the other two nails move as well, the result of his placement. Harumiya screamed and wanted nothing more than to thrash, but he body was locked in place by Arashi's Seal.

She was completely immobile.

Gatou then implemented a battery-powered hair trimmer, and he started going to town on Harumiya's breasts, jamming the rapidly moving little blades into the sensitive fat, leaving dozens of little cuts with the impaled nails. After he got bored with that, he grabbed the whole globe of flesh, slick with copious amount of blood, and pulled it taught. Then he channeled a bit of wind chakra to the hair trimmer and started the agonizing process of sheering Harumiya's breast clean from her body. Then he went for the other one.

The girl howled and howled and howled even more.

Gatou just tossed the bloody orbs of flesh over his shoulder like they were rotten apples, and they landed with a very wet splish. Then he commanded more water to him, and he used it to heal all the damage he had done, regenerating Harumiya's breasts, evening out her bloodstream, and assisting her bone marrow in creating red blood cells.

"Round San," Gatou intoned happily.

He brandished a power drill, and its shrill whine brought terror to Harumiya, but she dared not speak, dared not betray her masters.

Even as the drill made holes in all parts of her body, her legs, her arms, her stomach, her chest, even her cheeks, she never broke. Even as her being screamed and screeched and wanted death to come and end this torture, she remained resilient. The reason for this was her training and her teaching.

She had been born and bread for the sole purpose of carrying information, and as such, had been conditioned to resist all kinds of tortures and pains, even taught to find pleasure in pain, so that she would never break, bend, or yield to interrogators.

The main problem here was that she had never been with an interrogator—of which there had been several—that could heal all her wounds, meaning he could go as far as he wanted with her, and always bring her back. That thought alone was enough to break most people, as Gatou had only ever gotten to Round San before breaking his target, and it almost broke Harumiya, but her will was strengthened by the comforting thought that no matter what she experienced, she would be healed, and she would not be killed.

She took it as a challenge, really, as with all her previous torturers, to outlast them, and she buckled herself down to outlast the horror that was Gatou.

He dipped his gloved hands into a mixture of salt and lemon juice, and started rubbing her up and down all over, spreading blood all over her body, agitating the dozens of bloody holes that littered her skin and broke her bones. Harumiya screamed, but know she was hoarse, as Gatou had not healed her raw vocal chords, so instead of the high-pitched shriek, there was only the rough sound of exhalation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the eighteen _hour_ mark, Gatou was getting…not frustrated, not angered, not annoyed…but _excited_.

The eleven-year-old psychopath was giddy.

He was on Round 18, and employing things he had never thought of before, and now Harumiya wasn't so much an informant to be tortured for information, but a scratching post upon which to test out new techniques.

For example, did you know that if you get a pair of pliers, and grab hold of the clitoris, and start to twist and pull, you can actually rip the nerve bundle clean from the body?

Gatou didn't, but now he did.

The Torturer produced a cigarette lighter—the long version—and a bottle of liquid laundry detergent. "You know, I have always wanted to try this, since a lot of people use it as a threat—stikcing something up someone's ass, typically a lighter or a shotgun, and then lighting it or shooting it. Let's find out what happens!"

Gatou flipped Harumiya over on the table, and dipped the lighter into the detergent. "Now, since your ass is probably really tight, I'm gonna use some lube. Unfortunately, the lube I'm using is liquid soap, and soap does this awesome thing where it kills bacteria, and the inside of your ass is just _teeming_ with bacteria. More bacteria than the amount of human beings have ever been on the planet since we got here. In short, this is going to burn a lot, and I'm not talking about the fire."

Gatou took the lighter, the extended tip tripping with liquid detergent, and he unceremoniously began raping Harumiya's backside with it, pushing the stick inside her rear. Her throat was far too raw to make any substantial noise, but she was screaming in her mind. The invasion itself was just uncomfortable, as the lighter was very small in diameter and didn't stretch anything out to such a level that it caused pain. No, what really hurt was the soap, because Gatou was right.

There were trillions of microscopic bacteria living in our butts, and soap was made to kill bacteria. Not only that, but the tissue inside was very sensitive, and laundry detergent was very unforgiving.

Still, the burning of the detergent was nowhere near as bad as when Gatou managed to get the lighter to ignite inside Harumiya's asshole, literally setting her insides aflame.

Had she been able to move, she would certainly have been thrashing with everything she had.

Gatou whistled a merry little tune, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," to be exact, the very first Christmas song Shin'en had ever heard. He had heard it almost a year ago now, when he had dreamt in on the holy night with Sally and Persephone. Gatou whistled this song as he pumped the lighter in and out of Harumiya, just casually burning her insides to a melted goo.

He eventually decided to come to a stop, deciding he had marinated Harumiya enough, and so he pulled the lighter out, the action being accompanied by a strange wet sound that he would never forget, and the spillage of some liquid mass that smelled absolutely revolting.

"So, does the Sunny-Side Up Children's Home traffic their kids into the sex trade?" Gatou asked.

And to his infinite surprise, Harumiya rasped out very weakly, "G-Go f-f-f-f-fu-fu-fu…go… _fuck_ …your…your-your…ahhhh…"

She let out a final breath as her body was unable to take the punishment anymore. Gatou grinned savagely.

"What a treat…"

He took the last gallon of water that he had available to him, and dumped the whole jug all over Harumiya, running all the water up and down her form. This divine water power truly made Gatou a miracle worker, because he had done so many things to the girl.

He had chopped off her limbs, sawed through her bones, flayed her skin, peeled out her teeth with pliers, scooped out her eyes, ripped out her tongue, mutilated her genitals, poured salt and vinegar into all open areas, poured acid on her, melted her face, shoved electrical wires into her orifices and lit her up like a Christmas tree…all this and more, and despite all the damage he had done, he had healed _all_ of it.

Every cut, every burn, every abrasion, all missing skin, tissues, organs, blood, etc., all taken care of with water and literal godlike power.

Jesus Christ would've been proud of Gatou's healing work.

And horrified and the need for such work.

Now the Torturer was at a block in the road. He had indeed come up with many new tortures, and he had employed them all, but now Harumiya still maintained her defiance after all this, and Gatou was having to bring up a drawing board on what to do next.

He was interrupted by Arashi walking in, and snorted when the main came to an abrupt halt at the sight.

Harumiya naked on the table, water and blood steadily dripping down the drain in the floor, dozens of tools all soaked in blood, and the ungodly smell of bodily insides reeking in the air.

"You've been in here for almost twenty hours. Tell me you've succeeded in getting something."

"Well," Gatou said kinda sheepishly, "this bitch has got a will of adamantium, and I haven't broken her, but I guess it's not a total loss, because I came up with new torture methods!"

Arashi stared at the little psychopath. "You've been in here for eighteen _hours_ , and the only thing you have to show for it is new torture methods?"

"…yes."

Arashi stared for a little bit longer. Then he said, "You're losing your touch."

"Am not!" Gatou yelled.

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not!"

" _Eighteen hours_."

"So? She's strong."

"She's fifteen and a hundred and twenty-three pounds."

"And? You're six-foot-five and almost two hundred and thirty pounds! I bet you'd be able to handle me!"

Gatou flushed a little under his mask, and he could feel the raised brow from Arashi.

"That came out wrong," the Torturer said quietly.

"Indeed, it did. Come on. Time for a regroup."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Harumiya was asleep, and had been sense Gatou healed her last, and so she did not get to partake in the sweet feeling of victory that came with having succeeded in outlasting another interrogator, this one for eighteen hours.

She was awoken by the gentle caress of soft skin, and she opened her eyes to see another masked person, this one with orange hair sprouting from her head. Accompanying this new person was a plate of food adorned with pasta, a healthy dollop of refried beans, two slices of whole grain bread, and a bowl of blueberries and oranges, along with a large glass of juice, apple by the smell.

Harumiya gave the orangette a flat stare. "You think I'm going to eat nay of that? It's poisoned."

The orangette tilted her head to the side. "Why do you think its poisoned?"

"Because," Harumiya said shortly, "that's how these things work. You physically assault me, wearing me down, and then you send in the sympathetic and caring person who I'm supposed to like and get comfortable with due to a kind exterior and offerings of charity. It won't work with me."

The orangette laughed, and it was beautiful sound, full of mirth and joy, no malice or cruelty.

"Sweetheart, I've got to say you are right, but we're not doing things like _that_. You just went eighteen hours with the world's foremost torturer, the only person that can damage you any way he wants and then heal it all so he can start over anew. You are the _only_ person to resist him, and for that he wants you at your best for the next round, so he can try again with new techniques. You're hungry, thirsty, and tired, and Gatou wants you at full strength for what comes next. Besides, you're a strong girl, but even you have your limits, and you're clearly dedicated to keeping your secrets…"

The orangette leaned in close.

"You think you'll remain strong on an empty stomach? Just how important are those secrets, kiddo?"

Harumiya weighed the pros and cons, and then opened her mouth to be fed.

For the next ten minutes, the orangette gave the teen her needed sustenance, feeding her everything. The pasta, the bread, the fruits, the beans, and all the juice.

After the eating was over, the orangette tied new restraints onto Harumiya, and then made a Hand Seal. The girl was pulled into a spread-eagle shape, and suspended off the table she had been placed on. The table was wheeled away, and then the orangette made another Seal, and then Harumiya's legs were forces to cross at the ankles, and her arms to fold over her chest. She was left in this position, her toes less than an inch from the drain holes in the floor, suspended in the air.

"Prepare yourself," the orangette advised. "The second round begins now."

She left, shutting the door behind her.

Harumiya did indeed prepare, readying herself mentally for whatever Gatou had come up with…but he never showed…but it did get hot in the chamber. _Very_ hot. It had to be over a hundred degrees in the chamber, and it was making Harumiya break out in a sweat. It didn't help that her body was pulled so tight together, with her legs and arms crossed and pressed against her skin.

She assumed this was Gatou's tactic, trying to let her marinate in the heat before coming after her, and she buckled down. She ignored the sweat dripping almost profusely off her, pooling on the floor. She noticed how none of it was draining out like her blood had done previously, and assumed that the drain was blocked.

She maintained her readiness.

It felt like hours passed, and Harumiya was experiencing pains in her bladder. She needed to release. It felt like more hours passed of her trying to hold it, and eventually she just figured why peeing herself was any worse than anything that had already happened, and just let go. The urine flowed down her crossed legs, sliding all the way down to rapidly drip from her toes, joining the puddle of sweat.

After she finished, Harumiya let out a small sigh at the relief that came with relaxing a clenched muscle.

The temperature stayed at its hundred, possibly higher, and the girl continued to poor sweat from her body, but she was starting to feel the effects of dehydration. She peed again after a time, but a new problem arose, originating from her backside. Harumiya scowled, feeling insulted by these supposed new tactics of slowly cooking her, and making her soil herself.

She was probably going to have to let go eventually, but she swallowed hard and readied herself for a battle of attrition. It felt like an eternity passed, for it was hard to tell in this brightly lit chamber with nothing happening besides her sweating, sweating made all the worse by the effort she was exerting in keeping her ass together, and for a time it felt like she won.

The pressure in her rear lessened, her body finally getting the message that now wasn't the time, and Harumiya started the waiting game once more, only this time it felt just that much hotter, because her body was running low of fluids, which meant that the heat couldn't escape from her through her sweat.

More hours seemingly passed, and the pressure returned, this time with a vengeance. Harumiya fought the battle as best she could, but overcoming the mind was one thing, overcoming the body was another, and this time, her body did not yield to her mind.

Perhaps it wouldn't have been that bad if she had released the first time she felt the need, but now, with her body so low on liquid, and all that fiber that she _didn't_ know had been in her food, it _hurt_. She was constipated in the first place, but now her body was actively forcing the waste out, and too many factors were combing for a disaster.

Harumiya had been raped before, and she had gotten pregnant from it, and she had given natural birth. No anesthetics, no pain killers, nothing. Just a midwife's fingers spreading her cervix open, telling her to push, and push she had. It had been one of the most painful experiences in her life.

The point of telling that small story was to provide factual basis when Harumiya said that she knew what giving birth felt like.

So when she said it felt like she was giving birth out of her ass, she knew exactly what she was talking about.

Minutes later, the fowl smell raping her nostrils, Harumiya was panting hard, which wasn't good given the climate she was in. Her head was swimming and her vision dancing, and she could already feel the swollen veins around her anus, and inside. That whole ordeal had left her hemorrhoids, due to the muscular exertion of lack of moisture to aid in a smooth void. And during the whole thing she hadn't been able to move, and given her position, she could feel her waste strike the backs of her legs, and that feeling was just grody and made her want to vomit.

The smell certainly didn't help.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In Harumiya's mind, it had to have been a week already. Unfortunately for her, it had only been a day since the last time she had been fed, and her body had forced out one more round. She hoped she would become nose blind to the rancid stink, but that was not the case for her. No, she spent twenty-four hours drowning in the smell of sweat, pee, poop, and body odor, all of it accentuated by hundred-degree heat.

She could also still feel the little bulbs around her asshole, and they were unhappy at the pressure being exerted on them by her clasped glutes, but she couldn't move, and there was nothing she could do about. Speaking of, she felt cramps around her body from being locked in the position she was, and she really wanted nothing more than five minutes of stretching outside this stinky chamber.

Then, for the first time in a whole day, the door to her residence opened, and in game Gatou, the orangette, a blonde, a greenette, and a man with a heart-shaped pompadour, all of them wearing black outfits and grinning white masks.

"Hi," Gatou chirped. "You really made it stink in here."

Harumiya scowled, hungry, thirsty, dehydrated, and a smelly mess, all due to several factors.

Gatou went around, and Harumiya swallowed when he peeled apart her ass.

"Holy damn!" the Torturer exclaimed. "Not only does it smell like ass back here, but look t the size of these damn things!"

Harumiya heard the greenette say to blonde, "Gee, I wonder why it smells like ass?"

The blonde snickered.

The pompadour and the orangette joined Gatou in examining Harumiya's swollen anus, and the girl paled slightly when she heard a deep, distorted voice intone, "We'll have to operate immediately. Gatou, get your tools."

And operate they did.

Gatou took a blade and split apart each hemorrhoid, using multiple cuts to make sure all the blood could be drained out. He went the extra mile, squeezing each hemorrhoid like they were pimples. Those experiences, the cutting and the squeezing, weren't near as bad as when he started suturing using a needle and thread more commonly used for clothing than surgery.

Harumiya didn't have the faintest idea why, but this whole episode seemed to hurt a lot more than all the other things, and she could distinctly recall having her face melted by acid. Of course, what she didn't know was that the food she had eaten a day ago had been laced with a chemical that practically set her pain receptors ablaze, heightening her body's susceptibility to pain.

Due to the nature of the chemical, it had yet to work itself out of her system with her sweat and waste.

After the whole ordeal was over, Harumiya was left a shaking, trembling mess, her lips cracked and eyes dried out from the last vestiges of water in her body leaving through her tears. Her bottom was sending more signals of pain than her entire body was during the time Gatou had poured boiling water all over her raw skin, boiling water that had been mixed with copious amounts of salt.

Harumiya was left to stew in her agony and smells by herself for another smattering of hours, before she was visited again by the orangette, once again bearing a plate of food and a glass of juice that was high in fiber, not that Harumiya knew that, as her skillset revolved more around resisting torture than nutrition.

She ate, trying to keep her gratitude at the offered meal hidden. Then the orangette left, and the teen was left by her lonesome again for several agonizingly slow hours of nothing but heat and sweat. The only companion to come in later times was the strike of nature, and Harumiya's eyes nearly fell out of her skull from how wide they went at the stab of fire the suddenly sprang from her ass.

She cried out, her body still suffering from dehydration and constipation, and the food she had eaten had been laced with another round of the pain-enhancing chemical, making things worse. Her body made another push, the muscles trying to relax to let it out, but Harumiya, against her better judgement, held tight, not heeding the lesson from the last time this had happened.

In her effort not to soil herself yet again, Harumiya kept her muscles clenched until the pushing subsided, and she was spared the pain for another three hours, before it returned with a vengeance, and she couldn't fight her body this time.

Once again, her muscles contracted to push out what basically amounted to jagged rocks, only this time, there were fresh surgical lesions in the way, very raw, and very sensitive, and they let Harumiya know just how much they hated her.

The pain was so unbearable this time; it hurt so much that her brain shorted, and she forgot who she was for a few seconds. Even after it was over, her body went through a series of aftershocks that almost rendered her brain dead. As it was, her eyes lost focus and the little bit of saliva left in her mouth started to drip down her chin.

She could feel dripping going down between her legs, and a little voice told her that the suture had split and were leaking blood. She didn't know where that little voice came from, but it might have had something to do with the little guy in the black outfit.

He put something to her chest, and her nose became aware of a smell like cooking steak, and she felt a little bit warmer where she felt like she was being touched, but that was all.

It was all too much.

"Kill me…" Harumiya muttered.

The pain as finally too much; she had broken.

"Not yet," she heard, and she wanted to moan and throw a fit like a child not getting the toy they wanted. "You need to answer some questions."

Harumiya really wanted those questions to be asked already. So it would all just go away.

"Does the Sunny-Side Up Children's Home traffic their children into the sex trade?"

"Yes…" Harumiya answered weakly, almost impatiently.

"Where are the children sent?"

"A breeding facility…"

"What happens there?"

"They're broken in and made malleable for clients…"

"Where is the breeding facility?"

"Kabukicho…three miles outside the city…protected by samurai…no outsiders…only clients…and merchandise…"

"Thank you."

Harumiya felt a poke in her neck, and then all of it was over.

After Yūrei confirmed the intel, they came back and killed the unconscious Harumiya Suzuhi, packaged up her corpse nice and neat, and sold every bit of her on the black market.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Gatou is brutal. With his healing abilities, he can go as overboard as he wants, and always bring his target back from the brink.**_

 _ **The chapter's name is a fun little play on words; points to whoever can figure out how.**_

 _ **Did you just read an entire chapter dedicated to the torture of a teenage girl? If you went all the way through, then yes, yes you did. If you skimmed through it, then no, you did not just read an entire chapter dedicated to the torture of a teenage girl.**_

 _ **Now, you might be asking, what was the point of all that, what's it leading to? Is there even an answer, was it just one of my filler chapters?**_

 _ **Well, ladies and gents, no. There was a point to all that, and the point was to set up the next chapter:**_

 _ **Sachiko: The Birth.**_

 _ **For those that don't remember, Shin'en regards Sachiko as the worst personality he's got, and Lucy, the insane first daughter of Hecate per my canon, the one with the blood fetish, also regards Sachiko as her favored Blood Goddess, even more so than Asteria, who wiped out the human and animal population of her world.**_

 _ **If this chapter didn't hit the M-rating, next chapter most certainly will.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	37. Sachiko: The Birth

_Sachiko: The Birth_

 _ **This chapter is going to be a bloodbath. Sachiko is the personality Shin'en regards as the worst one he's got, and this chapter is why. Gatou would be number one, except Gatou does what he does for a reason. Sachiko…well, in simplest terms, Sachiko is Tobi (pet name for Percy in**_ **SoJ** _ **) on steroids.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

" _Sachiko had been out_ _twice_ _…the exact same result: over two hundred mangled corpses…"_

" _She has a penchant for tearing people apart and making snow angels out of their guts."_

-excerpts from _Backup Plan_ regarding Sachiko

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _December 23, 1011 A.S._

 _Town of Kabukicho_

"I hate all of you," Shin'en said matter-of-factly. "We should storm this damn place and kill everyone there. It's not like any survivors would escape us, especially since I can sense all the water in a two-mile radius."

"True, true," Arashi agreed, "but we're stealth killers first, fighters second. We have to stay with the territory."

"Bullshit. You just have a trap fetish, and like seeing me dressed up."

"No," was Arashi's simple counter.

Shin'en was indeed dressed up, wearing a milky kimono top with sleeves so long they covered his hands, a red skirt that dropped below his knees, and a simple pair of sandals. He had reshaped himself, making his appearance even softer and more feminine than it already was thanks to divine genetics. He had also changed his hair to a mint green, with a widow's peak and a few stray bangs on either side of the peak, and two thick bangs framing his face, with the rest around his head left thick but short, none of it touching his nape. His eyes were a different color, a vibrant ruby, and Sukina had completed the look with a cute little red bow in his hair to match his eyes and skirt.

And _he_ was still very appropriate, because after doing some recon and research, the primary focus—well, the only focus, really—of the Sunny-Side Up Children's Home was boys…the place was a trap house, in that it was a house…for traps. Hence Shin'en's appearance and lack of a change in genitals.

"Now, what's the plan?" Arashi asked.

Shin'en pouted but answered. "Go in with the other boys, sneak off, maintain cover, find the boss, kill them, give you guys the go-ahead, then slaughter everyone present, including the boys. No survivors."

"Backup plan?"

"Exfiltrate at the soonest sign of trouble, violently if need be, regroup, and then storm the facility. Why don't we open with that?"

"Because while the five us can all get in, and the five of us can do it without getting caught, having five of us in there increases the chance of compromise, and something going wrong. So, just one of us for now," Arashi answered curtly.

"Then why _me_? Sukina can transform into a trap, too!"

"You would really put Sukina in the position of being around a bunch of sleazy men looking to fuck little boys?" Arashi asked with his eyebrows raised. "That's very mean of you."

Shin'en fidgeted at the guilt trip, now feeling bad, especially at the disappointed look Sukina was giving him. About a year and a half ago, such a conversation wouldn't even be happening. Shin'en would've scowled at them all, and then went to go things his way. It was a grand testament to Yūrei's work to have made such a cold and driven and uncaring being like Shin'en able to fidget in place with a fake look and a simple guilt trip.

"But…now I'm in the position of being around a bunch of sleazy men looking fuck little boys…and I'm a little boy…"

Further testaments to Yūrei's accomplishment was that line right there.

Arashi nodded. "And that's exactly why you have a Seal on you that lets us monitor all your vitals at all times, while also picking up sounds from all around you. If something goes wrong, and you're unable to exfiltrate as planned, we'll come in and get you."

The leader gave a very rare, very kind smile. "Relax. We've got you. Everything will be fine."

Shin'en swallowed, and then nodded.

Arashi nodded back. "Alright. Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the Bible, the only descriptions for Hell center around fire, sometimes with brimstone and sulfur, and so most paintings and art of Hell have something to do a river of lava. However, there is another description of Hell that makes its way into circulation, and it went thusly:

Hell is the absence of God.

Going on that description, the Sunny-Side Up Children's Home was indeed Hell.

Girls were rare in the Home, as the Home focused mainly in the trap genre of pornography. They took in boys born of whores, and boys they kidnapped off the streets, only if they were younger than ten, and then spent years raising them to be girls, warping their minds with hypnosis, brainwashing, and altered environments, while also putting all the boys on strict diets high in estrogen and all laced with hormones, and only allowing girls' playthings and clothes to be in the Home, all for the sake of making a convincing trap.

It was a very profitable industry.

And tonight, while the whole illegal sex ring would not be brought down, a big chunk of it was about to go up in blood.

Infiltrating the orphanage was simple, as Shin'en's appearance was based off one of the denizens of the orphanage, a boy named Sachiko. The reason for this was because after conducting their research, Yūrei had found out that a shipment was being carted off to the Gentlemen's Private Nightclub tonight, the place that Harumiya had mentioned being outside the Town of Kabukicho. Among this shipment would be Sachiko.

Why this boy in particular? No reason; he had simply been the first one Bullock had seen, and therefore the one Shin'en was modelled after.

It worked out just as well, since observing Sachiko for the past two days revealed he had been kidnapped off the streets, had been here for nor more than six months, was antisocial, and showed signs of resisting the machinations of the orphanage. He was the ideal candidate, as Shin'en observed he didn't do much, which meant he could switch places with Sachiko, lay low for the few hours until the delivery man came, get lumped in with the rest of the boys, and then get carted off.

Step 1 of the plan went off easily. Yūrei scaled the sides of the orphanage, making not a sound, and the low light of the dusk masked their presence. Sachiko was at one of the windows by himself, staring despondently at the orange horizon, lamenting, brooding, and mourning. It didn't last, for mercy was given to him from higher powers.

Bullock looped a string around the boy's neck, yanked him from the window, where Shin'en instantly sped into place, and then Sachiko had his head seamlessly removed. And just like that, the demigod was in place. Yūrei sealed the corpse away and vanished into their positions.

Then the waiting game began.

It was more torture for Shin'en than anything else, since he did have ADHD like his sister and fellow half-bloods. Once upon a time, he had curbed it through sheer will and mental discipline, when he was training in the Cloud, but he wasn't that same young man anymore. He was different, Yūrei's work on him making him that way, and so his ADHD had returned, making the wait by the window a slow and agonizing one, as at this time, Sachiko did nothing but stare at the horizon until he was forced to come downstairs to eat with the other boys by the matron of the orphanage and a couple of brutish enforcers.

Yet another testament to Yūrei's abilities: here Shin'en was, in an orphanage.

 _An orphanage_.

In the same kind of place in which his life had started, where he once had brothers and sisters abound, loved ones, family. Being here should have triggered memories, flashbacks, emotions—any kind of response or reaction, but there was nothing to Shin'en, nothing but impatience and agitation.

Despite his ADHD, time continued its endless march forward, and the matron and her enforcers came, and 'Sachiko' was brought down to the dining hall with about three dozen others that could have very well been considered cute girls, but only two of them were real girls.

Another thing about this mission: it was a cover mission, just like the one Kimiko had been on, just like the ones Hiyumi was used for, but it wasn't a deep-cover mission like with Kimiko, nor was this going to be a recurring mission like with Hiyumi, and so therefore measures had not been taken for the formation of a new personality, meaning 'Sachiko' wasn't even an act, just a masquerade.

In fact, Shin'en was determined to keep 'Sachiko' just a face, so he didn't have a fourth mental splinter drumming around his mind trying to either A) teach him how to torture everyone around him, B) cry his eyes out (Kimiko was _still_ an absolute mess, even a year after the fact), or C) convince him to let her out so she could stretch her legs and maybe get a cute boy's address.

Hiyumi was a straight girl, after all.

Regardless, Shin'en kept a firm 'no' in place for all three, and so he was not going to allow a fourth to be created.

Dinner was rather nice, and strange, in that all the food were things more commonly associated with breakfast. The main course was bran cereal in soy milk, a smaller bowl of dried apricots and dates, a slab of tempeh, and a smattering of green peas. Most of this stuff had some good fiber, as Gatou now had greet knowledge over fiber-related foods due to his idea with Harumiya, but all of it had something else in common:

Estrogen.

Lots of it.

It was hardly enough to make one exhibit feminine behavior right after they ate it, let alone grow breasts overnight, but if such foods were apart of your daily diet, for years on end, then there would be noticeable effects, just like there would be noticeable effects after taking hormone pills for a long enough time.

With those thoughts in mind, Shin'en ate his dinner, actually rather enjoying having _real food_ to eat, as Yūrei had been feeding off insects for the past few days in an exercise to withstand hunger and battle the mental blocks associated with eating crawling things.

After dinner, the 'girls' were all made to do their dishes and clean everything up. The kitchen, the dining hall, the orphanage as a whole, as part of their daily duties. It sounded like grueling work, but Shin'en knew what grueling work was; washing some plates was not grueling work, and Sachiko didn't complain about having to do anything, so for the sake of the night, neither did Shin'en.

Besides, dishwashing was enjoyable, because he was in direct contact with water, instead of just moisture in the air.

After the nightly chores were done, it was downtime for the 'girls.' They were allowed to engage in whatever activity they so desired— _whatever_ activity—until curfew came and it was lights out. Sachiko's activity the past two days were to nestle into a corner away from everyone and read a book called _Tales of a Gutsy Ninja_ , by Jiraiya.

So, Shin'en nestled into a corner and started reading, remembering his exercises for controlling his dyslexia, like remaining calm, breathing, focusing. The letters didn't stop moving altogether, but they were more prone to being still with one or two dancing in place or switching shape, something that a little common sense couldn't fix.

For example, a word popping up as 'qot' in the sentence 'she went and qot the milk,' was obviously the word 'got.'

As Shin'en read, he became rather invested in the book, following the adventures of the protagonist, Naruto, like any dedicated reader. Because of this, he was truly annoyed when the matron and her enforcers came in and started rounding up some of the children, and he got roped up in the group.

In another life, he had given them the middle finger, slaughtered them on the spot, and went back to his reading, completely disregarding the gore and viscera staining the walls. However, this was not that life.

This was the canon life, and the canon life kinda sucked, honestly, especially when compared to another life in which Sally was already an accomplished writer, having made several best-sellers, many of which had been adapted into successful movies, when she gave birth to the twins, and Percy hadn't been taken, meaning she and her babies were able to live a comfortable life of simple luxury without Gabe or monetary worries.

Granted, the canon life wasn't so bad when you took into account that in another life, in which Percy hadn't been taken, and it was a mortal AU, Gabe regularly raped the twins, even as teenagers, having gotten away with Sally's murder years prior, and now pimped the twins out to anyone willing to pay, having complete custody and authority over them, both mentally and emotionally, as well physically and spiritually.

So, you know, it was the same old, same old: things could be a lot better, but things could also be a lot worse.

Anyway, displeased with the development but not doing anything about it, Shin'en allowed himself to be marched into the back of a large, tented cart, drawn by large oxen, and was seated tightly in between two other boys, who were in turn bunched up against other boys themselves. Squeezed as they were, even in this rather small cart, the matron got eighteen traps settled inside, ready for transport.

"Have a good night, sweeties!" the woman called happily.

Literally not having a clue as to what fate was about to befall them, as their conditioning had nothing to do with sexual activities, only feminine ones, the boys all waved back and bid goodnight as well. Except for Shin'en. He was still unhappy at not getting to read his book.

The cart was flanked by samurai riding on oxen themselves, and with the crack of a whip, the cart lurched forward. Harumiya had said the breeding facility, which was where the convoy was heading, was three miles outside Kabukicho, which meant that after this convoy got outside the city, they still had three miles to go…in a cart that was being pulled by oxen, all of them stuffed together like sardines.

Compared to the spacious corner and his book, Shin'en was a very unhappy camper for the next two _hours_ of riding.

Never mind the smell of the animals.

However, compared to what was coming next, the champion of Susano'o would've gladly spent a whole day travelling in an oxen-drawn wagon stuffed against a slew of fem-boys.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After arriving at the breeding facility—a three-story tall complex nestled in the woods—the boys, all dolled-up and dressed up, were marched out by a small contingent of samurai and led inside down a bland hallway. The atmosphere was somber and subdued, because they could all just _feel_ there was something wrong.

It was that natural born instinct in all of us that alerted us to danger when none was clearly present.

One boy mustered up enough courage to ask, "S-Sir? What—where—w-what are…what are we doing here?"

None of the samurai bothered to answer, and Shin'en could tell why: they were very uncomfortable with their jobs. They were samurai; they were supposed to be honorable, noble, upright, righteous…not hired goons on guard detail for perverts and pedophiles, delivering feminized young men into a life of anal rape.

Through the water in the air, and the water in organic matter, Shin'en could feel the atrocities being committed all around him. He didn't shudder, having been desensitized to it all by now, both from the video so long ago, and all the missions he had since performed regarding the illegal sex rings of the Land of Water.

Who have you covered.

The procession of traps were marched down the hallway to a very heavy looking mechanical door that had a red light glowing above it. A buzzer was heard, the light turned green and the door opened to reveal a spacious room full of comfortable furniture, and groups of men dressed in varying levels of finery. The only common trait among them was that they had gas masks on.

None of the traps were keen on entering, but the samurai shoved them in anyway, bringing all the idle conversations to a halt. With all the traps now inside, the samurai backed out and the door shut, leaving all the men in gas masks and the traps together, alone, with no obvious higher supervision.

Then a voice over an unseen speaker was heard.

" _Gentlemen, please make sure your masks are on tight. We will begin in ten…nine…eight…"_

As the countdown lowered, the men made final adjustments to their masks, checking their own and their friends', making sure they were all secure for whatever was about to happen.

Shin'en swallowed, readying himself for his breakaway.

"… _three…two…one…PARTY TIME!"_

Panels slid open in the ceiling, and a noxious green gas violently flooded in, spreading to cover the whole room in mere seconds. The lights went out, replaced with flashing stroves and roaming rainbows, and massively loud techno started to blare, exactly like what a club would be like. The gas, however, was the important stuff.

The traps coughed and spluttered, choking as the gas entered their bodies, and the effect was instant. After coughing, they all broke out into fierce sweats, blushes on their cheeks. Their eyes rolled up and their tongues flopped out, all making a perfect ahegao expression. Such a face was not unfounded, because inside their bodies, their glands were secreting excess amounts of dopamine.

 _Excess_ amounts.

That's what this gas was: a super aphrodisiac mixed with nitrous oxide.

Laughing gas.

Effectively, the traps were being rendered super horny and super lax, which was just perfect for the men in the masks, because they all just walked over, grabbed a trap of their choosing, pulled them away without any fuss, and got to work on effectively raping a boy that had their first wet dream barely a month ago.

For the traps, the process was simple and easy. Their immune systems were nothing to the gas, and hardly a fight was put up to expel it from their systems. Besides, the pleasure center was on full blast, so why would their bodies even bother to expel something so damn _good_ in the first place?

In that regard, they were lucky. They became only semi-conscious, lost in the throws of taboo pleasure and a sea of pure ecstasy.

Shin'en did not have such luck. His body was different, being half human and half god—which was honestly something that could be contested, as his chakra system was given to him directly by Susano'o—which meant his body was stronger, more resistance to outside effects. He did try to hold his breath, but the gas penetrated through his skin, attempting to trigger the same effects that it had on the others, and that's where the problems began.

Against the chaos of the lights and the pounding music, and the noxious green haze in the room, Shin'en's body was going haywire against the terrible power of the gas in its efforts to dispel it from his insides.

The Seal on him that monitored his vitals was doing its job, because Yūrei was having something a small panic attack.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Heart rate is off the charts," Bullock said with an edge as his mask was giving him a feed to Shin'en's vitals, as each mask was giving its own specific feed. "200bpm and rising fast."

"Temperature is 105 and getting higher," Yūwaku said, her feed giving temperature.

"Blood pressure is 190/125 and climbing," Sukina warned.

"I'm reading 80 breaths per minute," Arashi said, arms crossed as he looked at the facility in the distance between the trees.

"Orders?" Sukina asked. "He's dying in there."

"He'll pull through," the leader stated firmly. "He's strong."

"He's eleven."

"He's strong," Arashi repeated.

Sukina moved forward to where she could look him in the face. "If he dies in there all because you wanted to test is limits, I will kill you myself."

Indeed, Yūrei has known about this particular ring for quite a while, for its mission had appeared on their board a month before Shin'en arrived. It was only just recently that they had been able to pencil the mission in, and Arashi had also seen it as an opportunity to Shin'en's biological limits to the test. The chemical compound in the gas worked best when there was no bodily resistance, but when the body did resist was when all the really nasty things started to happen.

Arashi wanted to see if Shin'en could withstand it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He was having trouble withstanding it. His heart was beating faster than a snare drum being handled by a senior band member, sweat was gushing from every pore in his body, blood was trailing from both his nostrils, down his lips and into his mouth, filling his throat with the taste of his own life fluid, and he was breathing like a fat man running against Usain Bolt for the lives of his wife and children.

His body was fighting off what it—correctly—thought was an attack from outside biological forces, but the compounds in the gas reacted to heat, and right now, Shin'en's body was heated up to levels that would've been lethal to normal humans in its efforts to repel the invasion. The problem was that the invasion was bade stronger by the efforts of the body.

Shin'en kept trying to breathe, but the only in the room to breathe was more of the noxious gas.

It was all just too much. The flashing lights, the booming noises, the smells, the sights of boys between the ages of eleven and fourteen having their asses and mouths stuffed with the shafts of grown men, looks of pleasure on their feminine faces, his own highly elevated body temperature, his beating heart—beating so fast it literally hurt—the fever, the feeling of his brain melting, his body falling apart, the choking.

Shin'en backed up against a wall, gasping like a fish, too much happening to focus and think clearly.

He was about to shatter.

"Hey! There's one still over here!" a muffled voice broke through all the din.

Shin'en's bloodshot, watery eyes looked up, his tongue out of his mouth as he just desperately tried to get _oxygen_ into his lungs.

"Well, go get her, man! It's _your_ birthday!"

Through the green haze, Shin'en saw someone approaching, his pants unzipped and his erect penis sticking out proudly, glistening, a gas mask on his face.

He reached out. "Now, open wide, bitch. I don't want to feel your fucking teeth."

He grabbed Shin'en's head to hold it in place, lined himself up, and started to enter. The demigod's pupils dilated to the size of pinheads, and he sucked in a deep breath as his mouth got filled. It was too much—too much-too much-toomuchtoomuchtoomuchtoomuchtoomuchyoirfavdwpritjfnalkdmfbqwtruebsfhgiry172849504i&(%$#2uebfoir0ojgnskspTYBOIYUHNPDML,?"[][-=+KHJYO+03372BF?":# BvcjdovnkhldQWW++_MGLH/MEIVLDNDKNKE FqreufbSHYD^%90YJGKDP_=-:-!

The man's penis made contact with Shin'en's uvula, with the back of his throat, and he seized. The shock of the action was the final straw. Suddenly, it seemed that everything stopped, everything came to an end. From the feed in their masks, Yūrei saw all of his vitals flatline, and it through all of them into a state of temporary shock.

For a brief moment, Shin'en actually died. The chemicals were too much for him, not only affecting his body, but addling his mind beyond comprehension…but then a synapse fired, and another, and another, and another, and then everything was back up and running. But there were error messages across the board.

The room's speakers started playing a song, one called "The Fox's Wedding." It was a new song, a rapid, hard-thumping, fast-paced song sung in the Old Language. If you looked at the lyrics in the New Language, it was the perfect song.

With his mind broken, but back online, those error messages manifested themselves. The thing that looked like Shin'en suddenly curled their lips upward, and violently bit down. Foreign blood erupted in the mouth of the thing that looked like Shin'en, and it swallowed whole what was in its mouth.

 _It_ decided on a name for itself, and it decided to call _her_ self…Sachiko.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The now dick-less man went stumbling backwards, grabbing his crotch and screaming. Sachiko found that she liked the sound of screaming, and she liked the taste of blood. Hell, she just liked blood anyway; she didn't know why, but she knew that she liked blood.

And she was going to make sure everyone knew she liked blood.

With the rabid, fast-paced, thumping music of the "The Fox's Wedding" blaring in the background, Sachiko went on a killing spree using her powers over water.

She grabbed hold of the water inside her assaulter's body and tore him in half at the waist, and then she peeled his intestines away and used them as whips, whips with so much force behind them that they sliced people apart left and right. Ironically enough, there wasn't a massive ensuing of panic, because the music was loud, visibility so low, and everyone was focused on getting their dicks wet inside of a boy's asshole.

Degenerates, the lot of them.

Sachiko cleared the room with her intestinal whips, spilling literal gallons of blood everywhere, and she was not about to stop, not when there was so much more blood left to spill. With a twitchy body and spazzing eyes, Sachiko _skipped_ forward, her head bobbing to the right in time with the beat. Behind her, dragging across the floor like a bridal train, was all the blood and organs of the recently deceased, traps included.

She flung her hands at a wall, and the tidal wave of gore blasted it down, surprising a contingent of samurai.

Sachiko ripped out the breast bones of one unfortunate man, tearing them through his armor and clothes. Another, she peeled his teeth out from the roots and used the blood flooding into his mouth to block his throat and then expand, decapitating him with a pop. Others she rended their limbs from their bodies, or ripped apart. All these things she did to make sure it was bloody as she could possibly make it.

This all happened in the span of two seconds.

Sachiko continued her swath of carnage, the music blaring in her ears, her vitals all _very_ screwy. She didn't just kill all that she came across on her way to her destination, she killed everyone in the facility using her divine powers. She ripped out eyeballs, pulled out guts via the asshole, tore incisions and rapidly drained all the blood, pulled limbs off at the sockets, tore free bones through flesh and used them as weapons.

Those were the distant ones; the ones she came across in person suffered much worse deaths.

Many were caught screaming, and their screaming was overriding by the sound of cracking bone as Sachiko pulled the top half of their skulls away from the lower jaws. Others had their lungs inverted, Sachiko pulling out the whole respiratory system by crumpling the lungs and yanking them up and out the esophagus, leaving them to dangle from the mouth. Some had their intestines pulled out of their assholes, others had them pulled out from their mouths. Others had their brains boiled and drained form their skulls.

Some unlucky souls had their eyeballs pulled into their skulls, and yanked out through the sinus cavity, something that didn't immediately kill them. Some really unlucky souls found themselves enduring Sachiko's version of lingchi, in which she stripped away portions of flesh from random parts of the body to expose the underlying muscle and skeletal structure.

The truly lucky were just cut down by Sachiko's bloody whips and tendrils.

"The Fox's Wedding" still blasted in the background, though it was its final lines. Sachiko approached a big metal door that looked really heavy and expensive. Inside she sensed almost two dozen samurai and one overweight waste of a man busily inputting codes for a secret exit, but his fear and panic were causing his fingers to stumble, and his mind to not clearly recall what to input.

The door was clearly designed to keep unwanted people out, very powerful unwanted people. Sachiko attacked with the veritable river of blood she had brought with her, and the liquid surged into gaps and seems, wreaking havoc on the mechanisms, and she tore away the door. The blood surged inside and encapsulated all the samurai in their personal blood bubbles, and Sachiko started squeezing them, literally crushing the samurai.

The squishing of their organs, the snapping of their bones, the squealing of their armor, and their muffled cries were almost orgasmic.

With the song in its final beats, Sachiko wasted no time with the boss. She grabbed hold of him and twisted his hands 180-degrees at the wrist, his feet at the ankles, his legs at the knees, his arms at the elbows, his arms at the shoulders, his legs at the sockets, his body at the waist, and his head at the neck, turning him into an ugly, twisted, misshapen thing of a man, with bones poking out of him.

"The Fox's Wedding" came to an end, and Sachiko let the thing of a man fall to the floor with splat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

An hour later, Yūrei entered the facility, very cautiously, very quietly. It reeked inside, smelling exactly what one would think a facility of sex turned into a slaughter house would smell like. The lights were off and the sounds were dead, making it quiet and dark inside.

It was eerie.

The four Ghosts tread carefully across the standing puddles of blood on the floors, going to where their HUDs were picking up the signal of the Seal on Shin'en. They encountered no foes or obstacles, and the journey was short and uneventful. Their arrival, however, was full of excitement.

The main office where the boss worked out of had been redecorated, with organs strewn all over the walls and ceilings in neat arrangements, ones that matched perfectly with each of Yūrei's masks, meaning Shin'en had become a macabre artist.

In the middle of the room was a rotund corpse in a lake of blood, and the corpse was jiggling rhythmically.

Yūrei approached with careful steps, because that's where the Seal's signal was coming from. They approached and looked down, and discovered a morbid sight. Shin'en was still in his Sachiko guise, and he had removed the breast bones, pectoral and abdominal muscles, and skin of the corpse, and was happily making a snow angel in the corpse's interior because he was small enough to fit inside.

Sachiko looked up at the four sadistic grins of Yūrei and giggled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I have church tomorrow, the second of February 2019. Last week we talked about Jesus and the Samaritan woman who had been with five husbands and was living with her boyfriend. The message was that all wore worthy of salvation and grace, regardless of background and living status, and that Jesus was indeed the messiah because he knew about the woman's five husbands and boyfriend despite never having met the woman in his life.**_

 _ **Anyway, I'm going through a grind session in**_ **AC:OD** _ **. I'm racking up resources to get all my legendary armor and weapons upgraded to 70. I've calculated that I need 28,000 soft leather, 14,000 iron metal, and 280,000 drachmae to pull it off, and I have 1.1 million drachmae, roughly 9,000 soft leather, and almost a thousand iron metal. My strategy is to go around the map starting conquest battles by looting resource crates and nation chests and killing nation leaders, and then dismantling the gear I get from the battles and any mercenaries that I come across.**_

 _ **Because I am driven to that end, it might be a while before I update again, especially with homework abound.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	38. Spineless

_Spineless_

 _ **We have breached 700 Reviews, and this story will be a year old in June. I'm not sure how I feel about this.**_

 _ **Anyway, the Blood War is due to end in the beginning of June 1013, and this chapter picks up in the early days of 1012, meaning there's year and a half of mission left to go before the Blood War is over.**_

 _ **Also, someone left me a copy-pasted Review over fifteen chapters, and I'm pretty sure it's a bestiality lime. Please refrain from doing more of that.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _January 6, 1012 A.S._

Unlike last year, Shin'en did not get any Christmas presents.

The reason for this was because he had literally nailed his door shut and hadn't come out in two weeks. The reason for that was because he remembered quite well not just Sachiko's rampage, but the situation he had been placed in, the gas, the panic, the dick halfway down his throat—a dick his stomach had _digested_ because Sachiko had swallowed the damn thing whole.

That weighed on a person's psyche, and a child going through something like that?

Forget it.

Shin'en wasn't talking to anyone. Not even Sukina.

Who was pissed to high Heaven with Arashi for willingly and knowingly putting Shin'en in that situation in the first place. It was her temper that kept the leader at bay from barging into Shin'en's room and whipping his little ass back into shape for the job he had signed on to do.

And so two weeks had passed with Shin'en holed up alone, and Yūrei continued to do their thing without him, killing people left and right.

However, all things came to an end, and Shin'en's alone time was on that list.

Sukina's hand burst through the wood, and she ripped downward, splintering the whole door apart. "Alright, kiddo. You've more than enough time to yourself, and I can smell your nasty butt from the lobby. Time for a bath and a short vacation."

Shin'en did indeed smell, mostly because he had been stabbing himself all over his arm like he had when Kimiko was having a meltdown in his mind, and so all that blood was all over him and his sheets, and not only that, but he hadn't ever changed out of his Sachiko attire, which was also caked in a fine layer of blood itself.

The demigod just gave a Sukina a blank look with eyes devoid of life.

Sukina walked right up to him, grabbed his ear, and yanked him out the door. Not even the shock of having his ear nearly torn off was enough to get brain functioning again. Sukina lead him through the summer home, past the other three Ghosts, didn't look at them, went right out the door, through the trees to the waterfall, and threw Shin'en into the cold liquid.

He came sputtering out a second later. "WHAT THE HELL!?"

Then he paused. "Where am I?"

"Planet Earth, Land of Water, the Main Island, a stream fed by a waterfall," Sukina answered.

"Oh…" Shin'en blinked. "Was that all a dream? The facility?"

"No."

"Oh. Gatou and Sachiko are weird, and they won't leave Kimiko alone, and Hiyumi has to make them back off, and they're all too loud."

"Make them be quiet," Sukina offered.

Shin'en stopped and thought about it. "Okay," he said simply.

Then he closed his eyes and concentrated, imagining the four voices in his head getting sealed up in thick layers of ice. Steadily, the voices faded, going into a decrescendo of defiance and pleas of no as they were sealed up again. When he was done, Shin'en sighed in content.

"That feels better."

"Good. Now clean yourself up. You smell like a corpse."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Now with his head back on a little straighter, Shin'en and the rest of Yūrei were gathered in the front room.

Sukina clapped her hands together. "Alright everyone, on account of all the hecticness that has plagued our life for the past few days, I hereby declare this to be a beach day, so pack your beach stuff and let's go!"

Bullock and Yūwaku disappeared so fast they left vague smoke shapes of themselves. Shin'en looked between Sukina and Arashi, before he went to get some stuff from his room. The former two held a staring contest for a little bit, before Arashi exhaled and left for his room to gather some things. Sukina pumped a fist in victory.

An hour later, Yūrei was all by themselves on a secluded beach with a clear sky overhead and a warm breeze blowing through…and they just had fun. If you happened on them, you'd think they were nothing more than a group of teenage friends—Shin'en being someone's little brother…or sister, depending on the light caught him based on your perspective—having a good day at the beach.

Granted, superpowered friends, seeing as how all of them were using their chakra to spice things up.

However, there was more significance to this beach than just having a relax day. This was the very same beach that Shin'en used to come to with his brothers and sisters many years ago, when he was still at the orphanage with them. He had grown up here, going from a baby that was carried along by one of the older orphans, to a toddler learning how to swim in the shallows, to a child teaching other toddlers how to swim.

And he didn't even realize it.

The whole time he was there with Yūrei, the whole time he was laughing and playing and having a good time, he never once gave any thought as to where he was. To the host of invisible onlookers, those had been watching all this time, this fact was heartbreaking.

The fact that Shin'en's mind was so addled by Yūrei and the war that he didn't have a clue that he was a place so revered by him long ago.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en dreamt that night of his sister, and it was one of the dreams he found to be the most interesting: a dream of his sister when she was younger than him.

Persephone looked about six or seven, her raven hair held in place by a blue headband, her clothes simple and bland. She was at a daycare by the looks of the room and all the other children and toys, and a teenage supervisor there in the corner wearing a set of scrubs, her attention focused on a blue device she was holding between both her hands as she periodically looked around the room.

It made Shin'en feel weird seeing his sister shorter and younger than him.

Persephone was standing by herself, bouncing on the balls of her feet, a hand twisting the hem of her shirt. Her eyes were darting around the room, her standing at the very back of it, giving her a view of everything. She looked nervous. Her first day, perhaps.

Little Persephone swallowed and went over to a group of boys who were playing with actions figures of characters Shin'en recognized as Justice League superheroes.

"Can I play?" Persephone asked the boys.

They stopped in their playing and all of them gave her the stink-eye.

"We're not gonna let a _girl_ play with us," one of the boys said. "Go away!"

Persephone glowered, stood up, huffed, and went away. The boys went back to their playing, though they were only mashing the toys against each other. The daughter of Poseidon approached a group of girls playing with dolls.

"Can I play?" she asked.

The girls stopped in their playing and gave her the stink-eye.

"We already have enough people," one of the girls snapped. "Go away!"

Persephone glowered, stood up, huffed, and went away. The girls went back to their playing, though they were only pretending like they were having tea. The daughter of Poseidon approached a mixed group of boys and girls, all of them with cards in their hands, and a deck in the middle of their circle.

"Can I play?" she asked.

"We just started the game," one of the boys said. "You can't just come in after the game is started. You can play after we're done, though."

Persephone's mouth set into a thin line. She knew from experience that _waiting_ was not something she did very well. It was often she found herself having to wait for the bathroom, and she would just go into the boys' one. She usually got in trouble for it, but she didn't understand why.

The little kids all got in trouble when they pooped their pants, and she was not about to poop her pants, and the boys' bathroom looked just like the girls' bathroom, so the big deal escaped Persephone.

She walked away from the group playing Go Fish.

That left only two other parties.

Persephone went for the bigger of the two. They were weird to her, their hair for one, all frizzy and bunched into several sprigs that jutted out everywhere, and their skin was dark as the hair on her head. She figured she might find friends in this group, since their hair was black like her hair; all the other kids' hair were shades of blonde and brown.

However, some of the girls noticed her approaching, and the whole congregation looked at her in synch. Persephone stopped, and turned around. The message in their eyes was very clear: go away.

That left only one other party, and it was a little girl with strange hair. It was red, it just couldn't be real, and she had a bunch of _dots_ on her face—those couldn't be real, either. They were oddities to Persephone, and base human nature was to avoid things they didn't understand or comprehend.

That, and the red-haired girl had gotten hold of a bunch of colored markers and busily doodling all over herself.

That was also weird, and Persephone was going to steer clear of that.

Shin'en watched as his sister approached the supervisor, who was nose-deep in her device. The demigod moved over and saw that the woman was busily playing a game of some kind, directing a battle between a mutant orange lizard and a mutant yellow bird with a thunderbolt motif.

"Uh, ma'am?"

The woman jolted in surprise, her concentration so strong she hadn't realized Persephone was standing there.

"What's up, kiddo?"

Persephone swallowed, aware of how dumb this was going to sound. "No one…no one will play with me…and…I'm…and I'm _bored_."

The older girl blinked, the expression on her face being "that is not my problem, go away," but she realized that she had a job that required her to interact with children, and she needed to do it. Her eyes scanned the room, seeing things Persephone's inexperience didn't see.

The rowdy boys with their toys. The prissy girls and their dolls. The average kids playing Go Fish. The black girls all surrounding themselves, coming from a black-dominated neighborhood making them predisposed to those of their own color, and the really rich girl over there in the corner using herself as a canvas.

The teen's face drooped, as she had been told once before to stop that girl from coloring on herself, and if she ever did, that it all needed to be cleaned off ASAP.

Remembering this, the teenager made that her priority, and sidelined Persephone's predicament.

"Uh, go play with those blocks until a get back."

She set her device down on the chair she was sitting in, and went after the redhead.

Persephone watched that episode for all of two seconds, before her eyes became glued to the toy sitting in the chair. She picked it up, and tried sounding out the name written at the bottom. It was hard because the letters wouldn't be still.

"Guh…Guh… _Game_ …Game…Doy…? No, Game, uh…" her eyes screwed up, and she never got the chance to finish her exercise, because the device was ripped out of her hands by one of the earlier mentioned prissy girls.

"It's a _Game Boy Advance_ , stupid," the lead girl snapped. "It's only for smart people who know how to read, not dumb little babies like you who."

With her limited lexicon and wit, all Persephone managed was a sharp, "I'm not a _baby_ , and I'm not _dumb_."

"Yes, you are," the girl retorted. "You can't even read. Only babies and dumb people can't read."

"I'm _not_ dumb," Persephone stated again, an edge in her voice.

"Then you're a baby," the girl reasoned. Then she spoke to her friends, grinning maliciously. "Check her diaper, sees if she's wet."

The girl had three extra little hellions at her command, and they all moved in at once to grab hold of Persephone so they could do who knows what to her, and at the onset of the threat, Persephone's body just… _moved._

At the slightest twitch of the other girls' muscles, four thousand years of inborn battle instincts grabbed hold of six-year-old Persephone, and what did she do? Did she rush forward to grab the Game Boy and use it as a bludgeoning weapon? Did she break out into a display of martial arts, and Neo these bitches? No, and no.

What Persephone did was grab the chair and buy four for the price of one.

Shin'en put his hands over his head and started clapping rapidly with a flat expression.

Now, even with his limited understanding of the stupid laws of this world his sister lived in, he knew she was going to be in big trouble for what she just did, and he wanted to see how it would all play out. Unfortunately, the dream ended.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en's eyes popped open as soon as Sukina's hand touched his door handle, and he was sitting up in his bed when she opened the door. The blank expression on her face told the boy that what she was about to tell him was going to make him very unhappy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He was right. What he had been told made him very unhappy.

"So you're going to make another personality in me because Mei said that morale is getting low among the Rebels, and she ordered you to find a way to come up with a solution, and your solution is to make another personality in me!?"

"Yes," Arashi answered with a straight face.

Shin'en's whole body went bright red, his eyes catching flame, and steam erupted from his ears with the sound of a train whistle.

Yūwaku grabbed a nearby bucket of water and doused him with it, causing steam to billow around his body. Shin'en turned a very angry look at the blonde.

"Hey, you were about to burn the whole place down."

"Well, if you get told that the grand plan to boost morale for a bunch of murderers is to get made up as a cute and perky preteen nurse girl, I'd like to see _you_ not burn down the whole place!"

"It could be worse," Bullock coughed into his fist. "You could've been made up as a teenage nurse girl, and then you'd be a sex icon."

"I still _am_ going to be a sex icon!"

"Yes, but for less people."

"And those are going to be the weird people!"

"And you can kill them if they try anything," Arashi said, as if this made the whole situation okay. "Now, stop your bitching. You swore an oath to do whatever it takes to kill Yagura, and part of killing Yagura is cutting his army down to size, and to cut his army down to size, we need soldiers that have the will to fight."

"We exist," Shin'en snapped.

"We cannot be everywhere at once."

Several poofs of smoke obscured the room, and when the smoke cleared, dozens of copies of Shin'en all glowered at Arashi, who remained unfazed.

"The plan has been made and it will be executed as I see fit. Let's get started."

Shin'en growled, getting fed up with everything. He was here for the sole purpose of killing the Fourth Mizukage, not playing dress up.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _December 9, 1012 A.S._

The Rebels had hardly been impressed with Nanako, the little girl cosplaying as a nurse. Bubbly, happy, perky, and a ray of sunshine though she may have been, cute as well, and young, reminding many of a little sister or a daughter, these men and women were hardened by combat and made cynical by death.

Still, their personal feelings on the matter didn't at all matter to the Co., who made everyone attend a one-on-one session with Nanako, to spill their guts out and relieve their shoulders of all the burdens they carried.

Touji stared flatly at the loli before him. She was cute, and she was young, with a round face, big round eyes, a short stature, a slim body devoid of mass and baby fat, striking blue hair that glittered in the light if it caught it just right, and ocean-blue eyes. She wore a nurse costume—white stockings, white opera gloves, the button-down shirt, and the little white hat, all framed in red—and she had a clipboard and pen with her, ready to jot down notes.

"Listen, kid," Touji started, but was interrupted.

"Nanako. My name is _Nanako_ , and you will call me such, 'kay?"

Touji's nose wrinkled upwards towards the left. "Fine, _Nanako_ , listen…I don't care why you're here, I don't care who you are, I don't care at all about you. We could fall right under attack this moment, and you could get half your head blown off, and I wouldn't care. I've seen too much to care about some kid like you."

Nanako scribbled some stuff down on her clipboard, and then said in a very quiet voice, "You killed a child."

Touji looked stricken.

Nanako continued. "It weighs heavily on you. If I had to guess, you hardly get any sleep at night because you keep seeing that child's face in your dreams. You're haunted."

Touji stared at the little girl, mouth slightly agape, and then he settled into a sneer. "Good job—gold medal to the brat with the insight. Yeah, I killed a kid; it was a few months ago, Yagura was employing a new tactic, using a bunch of brats that he sped-run through the Academy, giving them basic skills and knowledge, hoping that we couldn't bring ourselves to kill children on the battlefield. Well, it didn't work, and now I can't sleep at night wondering," Touji's voice broke, and he swallowed, "wondering if…wondering…"

He couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.

Nanako got up and placed her arms around the man's head, and pressed her forehead to his. She whispered comforting words to him, and soon enough, Touji was letting his soul out to a complete stranger, someone less than half his age. It didn't matter, it just felt great to finally get these things off his chest.

Hours passed, and more people became counseled by Nanako. The girl was a worker of miracles, with an intuition sharp as a sword. She could pick out the problems people had like a professional architect finding structural flaws, and then efficiently go about solving those problems.

The problems were generally the same: a person that they killed, a person they saw die, friends, family, lives they left behind, terrors over what life was going to be like if this happened or if that happened, and Nanako always had the answer, whether it be a powerful piece of words, or an inviting shoulder to cry on.

A whole platoon saw the little nurse in one day, and a whole platoon found themselves willing to give their lives in protection of the little nurse. She had this air about her that you just liked; it got into you, nestled inside you, and it was warm, fuzzy, and comfortable. You didn't want that air to leave.

Like Mei had wanted, morale was rising as the psychological burdens were lifted one by one.

Days passed, and then weeks, and then February was there, with Nanako being ferried from encampment to encampment by elite guards. By now, word had spread of the little nurse among the Rebels, and this new location was very eager to see for themselves if she was everything she was hailed as.

Nanako did not disappoint.

However, as amazing as she was in helping people with their mental problems, a surprise attack by a small remnant of Loyalist forces launched a surprise attack, and while the killed no one, they injured many before being eradicated. That was when Nanako's bodily knowledge was brought forth.

"He's got internal hemorrhaging around his stomach. Create an incision so the blood drains out."

"Shrapnel's in her upper arm and parts of her neck. She's lucky not have had her vertebrae severed."

"She's got five broken ribs on the right side of her body, one's almost poking her lung. We need to get the bones back in place or she might drown in her own blood."

"His leg is broken in three places with a blood clot heading upwards. We need to move now."

Up and down the way Nanako went, giving diagnosis and orders on what to do, often operating herself. By the end of everything, several people looked well on their way to being mummies, but no one was dead.

"Spineless cowards," Nanako muttered to herself, though it was heard by those in earshot. "Attacking by surprise, not giving any time to at least prepare, tch—cowards."

The medical tent was a big place, with many openings for entry and exit. There were dozens of tables set up for patients to be put on, and many of those tables were occupied.

"Hey, don't sweat it, kiddo," someone said from a nearby table. He was a young man, more bandages than anything, and the air around him had him pegged as the happy-go-lucky kind of person. "If they're sneak-attacking us, that means they don't have the muscle to take us on in a fair fight, so they have to show how tiny their balls are and pull a fast one on us. I think it's a sign of how awesome we all are."

Nanako's lips upturned slightly. "That's a great way of looking at it."

The young man grinned, then he said, "Hey, I've got a joke. You want to hear it?"

Nanako shrugged. "Sure."

"So, this woman joins a caravan, and she's carrying her baby with her, right? She goes up to the caravan leader, and asks to make sure she can stay. The leader says it's okay, but he also says, 'That is the ugliest baby I've ever seen!' Now upset, the woman goes to the back of the caravan, and a guy says 'You look mad. What's wrong?' And so the woman says, 'The caravan leader insulted my child!' And the man says, 'That would make me mad, too. You should go back up there and tell him what you think of him. I'll hold your monkey for you.'"

The young man finished with an expectant smile.

The entire tent just stared at him, before one guy started cracking up, and the domino effect took over until everyone was laughing, even Nanako.

Truth be told, she was rather depressed herself. The past month of going from place to place, meeting so many people, getting to know them, their stories, their troubles, she bonded with them. They were her friends. And she was never going to see them again. That _weighed_ on Nanako, and so this opportunity to just laugh and enjoy a good time, brief though it may be, was a welcome opportunity.

And so the little nurse laughed.

 _SQUELCH!_

The laughter halted immediately as warmth splashed across Nanako's face, and something went flying into her mouth. She jolted, and the sounds of the world faded from her ears, becoming distant and warbled. Her eyes slowly cracked open, focusing on the background. Chaos, Mist ANBU cutting people down left and right, screams, blood, death.

Then her vision focused in on the foreground, and she was terrified. The top half of the young man's skull was missing, and Nanako saw the tops of his bottom teeth, his tongue, and the opening of his esophagus. She reached to her mouth, grabbing hold of the dangling string, and she pulled it, dragging the thing in her mouth out of there. She stared, shell-shocked, at the eyeball she was holding by its optic nerve.

A shadow suddenly fell over her, a shadow with arms raised in such a way that in might belong to one about to deliver a killing strike.

' _Spineless…'_ Nanako hissed in her mind.

Fear and terror immediately gave way to hatred and fury, and she invoked her divine powers.

The Mist ANBU behind her suddenly convulsed and screamed as his spine was torn completely free from his tailbone, his skull, his ribs, and body in a glorious shower of blood. He collapsed in a heap. And Nanako did the same to all other Mist ANBU that she could feel. All across the encampment, the Loyalist forces were stumbling the ground as their backbones were torn out of their bodies.

In seconds, everyone was dead.

In seconds, hovering above their corresponding corpses, were their spines, dripping in blood and slowly spinning clockwise.

Nanako surveyed the death around her, all the lives she had just saved, all the lives that were now gone because of the sneak-attack by the now-literally spineless cowards, and she fell to her knees and sobbed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Next chapter ends the Breaking Point Arc.**_

 _ **I've finished my set goal for**_ **AC:OD** _ **of upgrading all my legendary gear, which means that I have nothing else to do with my time besides homework and writing. Lucky for you guys.**_

 _ **How was the scene from Persephone's childhood? Do you want more scenes, or more focus on Shin'en in the Bloody Mist?**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	39. Breaking Point

_Breaking Point_

 _ **Welcome back to the final chapter of the Breaking Point arc, appropriately titled Breaking Point. We're gonna hit the fan this chapter, and I'm going to literally pull a deus ex machina, though Susano'o ex machina is probably more accurate.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _February 29, 1012 A.S._

Shin'en was dreaming again, once more about his sister, but it wasn't a dream of any real event.

Persephone was suspended above the ground by her feet, her legs spread, and the Torturer was busy at work, using a bow saw, using its many jagged teeth, to shred through the preteen demigoddess' crotch down towards her head.

Amidst her anguished howls, Shin'en's screech of horror was louder.

Gatou stopped what he was doing and whacked Persephone's throat, crushing her voice box and ending her screams. "What? This is _your_ dream, dude. I just live in this head of yours."

Shin'en just screeched again, and the whole seen changed to an even worse nightmare. It was the trap house Sachiko had been born in, and Persephone was the main item of attention. Ironically, in a morbid way, all the men here had come here to have anal sex with a boy, but here they were gang-raping a girl.

Shin'en couldn't even get his voice to work at this one; he couldn't even get his body to move at the sight of his eleven-year-old sister's throat bulging with some guy's meat down inside it. And then everyone was being torn apart by invisible forces. Limbs and strips of flesh were sent flying in all directions. Tendrils of blood lashed out and splices people to ribbons.

Shin'en watched the gory display with a stunned face. He slowly turned to his right, where he saw Sachiko standing in a passageway with mist and red light streaming from behind her, with her hair obscuring most of her face, though her manic grin was visible, and shining through her bangs were two small red dots.

Unable to make sounds, Shin'en turned his head back to the room, and he saw his big sister's head floating in a pool of blood.

The image didn't last for any more than a second afterwards, and anew sight took place. It was the Yasaka family home, the big, grand entry hall. Kimiko was there, one of her arms folded over her chest, her other arm holding Flounder the dolphin plushy over her first arm, hiding it.

She was on her knees, sniffling with her head bowed. Persephone then appeared from around a corner, and then she ran to Kimiko, her eyes going wide and filling with concern for the distraught little one.

She put her hands on Kimiko's shoulders. "Hey, are you okay? What's wrong?"

Kimiko stilled, then looked up with a tear-stained face, her eyes bloodshot, her cheeks red, and her nose leaking mucus. And then she moved. With a motion too fast for a demigod to track, Kimiko slashed with her covered arm, revealing that she was holding the same knife she had used to kill the Yasaka family. Now she used that knife, to cut open Persephone throat.

Shin'en's sister stumbled back, and hand on her crimson neck, surprise and terror in her eyes. Kimiko pounced, screaming as she rapidly stabbed Persephone in all places that she could reach. Persephone could do nothing but take each stab as they came; putting her hands up to try and stem the attack didn't help, and Kimiko reduced her to an eviscerated, human-shaped thing on the ground of the Yasaka mansion.

Shin'en felt like he was quickly, painfully dying on the inside. This was _his_ dream, this was stuff going inside _his_ head…

 _SO WHY IN THE FUCK WAS HE WATCHING HIS SPLIT PERSONALITIES BUTCHER HIS SISTER!?_

The scene changed again, this time with a roar. Shin'en was suspended in outer space, the planet besieged by thousands of alien craft. Then he saw, to his infinite shock, the Pacific Ocean erupt—the whole ocean go exploding outwards in a white plume over half the size of the planet—and a monstrous black dragon took flight. The creature was massive, with a wingspan greater than the planet, its length from the tip of its snout to its tail even longer that its wings. If its size wasn't scary enough, then the fact that it had thirteen heads and necks, and thirteen tails, would've made gods shit themselves.

The dragon lit upon Antarctica, and Shin'en honestly thought the beast was going to splinter the planet, but Mother Earth held together. The dragon aimed its heads and necks in twenty-six different directions, and let loose brilliant flashes of light. The invading armada became engulfed in fire, and it was fire that ended Shin'en's dream.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He shot wide awake as there was an explosion in the distance. He and Yūrei had been camped out away from a Loyalist encampment, serving as unknown backup for a contingent of Rebels that were planning to launch an attack in the dead of night. It appeared that the attack was on.

"Move in," Arashi ordered. "Don't kill anyone unless you're spotted."

"So the point is to not get spotted?" Shin'en asked.

"Exactly. Now move."

The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist moved in, quiet as ants in a shag carpet. Their purpose was to make sure the attack went off with as little a hitch as possible, and then slaughter everyone present, Rebels included, if things were obviously going South. The Ghosts took positions scattered about, using jutsu and the environment to remain hidden amongst the chaos.

The spot that Shin'en dug into was a bad spot, because it put him on a front row to watch this particular episode unfold:

A brother and sister pair, the sister being the eldest, were running between the alleys created by the tents. They were clearly urchins, given their dirty appearances and rag-like clothes. The Loyalists let such little ones hang about their camps because A) the Rebels were the "good guys," meaning they'd typically be less keen on attacking an installation with children clearly present, and B) the Loyalists were much better equipped than the Rebels, even with the Hidden Cloud discreetly supporting them through the deal between Ay, the Third Raikage, and Mei Terumi, leader of the Rebellion, and so they could afford to feed a few extra little stomachs.

The kids were running for their lives through the attacking Rebels and panicked Loyalists, and it seemed at each turn they made there was something happening. A fire, an explosion, a dead body, a battle, or a murder—always something happening.

The sister did a good job in leading herself and her brother away from danger, as best as could be expected with danger literally everywhere, but then they turned the wrong corner.

So long ago, just before Shin'en arrived in the Land of Water, Susano'o had pulled him into an interdimensional escapade involving the world of _Sword Art Online_ , and he had been tasked with wiping out the members of the evil guild called Laughing Coffin, a group of deranged psychopaths that had cracked under the pressure the death game created, and so caused death themselves.

The premise had been to save the lives of Kirito, Asuna, Klein, etc., and the mission had gone off without a hitch. Shin'en arrived where he needed to be, found the members of Laughing Coffin, and proceeded to kill every single one of them without a hint of mercy or remorse. Following that was a brief conversation with the latter mentioned three main characters, but that wasn't important.

What was important was after that little episode, Susano'o had warned Shin'en that he would encounter many cretins in the Blood War, many deranged individuals that thrived on carnage and chaos. Thus far, the demigod had indeed seen his fair share of psychopaths…all of them parts of random factions.

See, with the nature of Yūrei's missions, they hardly interacted with the armies of Yagura and Mei. Truth be told, if they were interacting with either army, something was wrong, because they weren't _supposed_ to interact with the armies. They were supposed to gather money through a plethora of means to support the Rebellion.

So, what Shin'en was seeing for the first time in his sixteen months of being in the nation-sized swamp, was a member of the Rebellion with almost every screw loose in his brain.

He was a short, lanky individual, with his body so cut he was on the verge of dehydration. He wore a scarf that had a hood attached to it, and virtually nothing else important. Just a thong that left one of his testicles hanging out the side. His legs were caked in mud from the bottom of his feet up to his calves, and the rest of his exposed skin was speckled in black…stuff.

Shin'en could tell it was an epidermal infection.

Anyway, the Rebel man was busy playing mumbly peg with a set of women corpses, all of which were in a state of undress and were all clearly freshly dead. The man looked up just in time to catch the siblings come around the tent, and he let out a sound only a retard could make.

He brandished his kunai at them and sprang forward.

The siblings froze up at the incoming crazy man, his eyes very wide and his tongue flopping out of his mouth. It was a terrifying image to behold, even the staunchest of men could admit that, to see such a wild expression on the face of a human being.

The siblings collectively felt this was how their short lives were going to end, and then another blur of motion streaked in from the side, and one second the man was there, the next he was gone, ripped from the air as if by a higher power.

The siblings stood there, too stunned to move or act or think properly. It cost them. By the time the big sister got her brain working again and was about to haul ass out of dodge, another shinobi came along, another Rebel, and he decided to take no chances with the siblings, and he cut both of them down in the blink of an eye.

It was just as that moment that Shin'en came back from the way, having dispatched the deranged person, and found the siblings that he had just saved lying in a pile of bloody mud, a Rebel shinobi rapidly moving along his way to continue the attack.

Looking at the siblings' corpses, with the naturally tan skin, their dark hair, and the green eyes staring up at the cloudy night sky…something just…clicked in Shin'en.

He wasn't sure why it clicked, it wasn't like he was projecting Persephone and himself on the couple of corpses, and he didn't even know their names, so he had no personal connection to them, but maybe that was just it. The fact that he had gone out of his way to save them, only for them to end up dead anyway.

However, such a notion implied base frustration and irritation; what Shin'en felt was akin to a personal attack on himself, and he just…clicked.

In puffs of smoke, the Lightning Fangs were brought into the world after so long of inactivity, and they were gleaming bright and powerful as ever. With a cry desiring of battle, Shin'en charged forward. The Rebel shinobi responsible for the siblings' deaths turned around with weapons ready for a fight.

What he got was a flicker of movement, a cold bite through his abdomen, a sudden loss of tremendous bodily warmth, and a hard landing with the ground. He tried to move his legs, but then his brain recognized the fact that he didn't have legs anymore. Then shock kicked in, a lot of shock, and the man died.

And Shin'en went tearing through the encampment, cutting down everyone he came across, whether they were Rebel, Loyalist, man, woman, child, animal—all were fair game, and you know what?

He enjoyed it.

Months of creeping around in the shadows, delivering quick, lethal strikes to unsuspecting targets was boring and monotonous. This night was a welcome change of pace, a chance to just _not_ creep around and instead go all out on a killing spree of the people he was _actually supposed to be here to kill_.

Honestly, that was his whole fucking purpose in life: killing shinobi.

He hadn't been killing shinobi, he'd been killing whatever name popped up on a piece of paper.

Amidst all the death he was dealing, the lives he was ending and families he was destroying, Shin'en's only regret was that—with the slicing and dicing of this one hapless woman into no less than a dozen decent-sized pieces—that the killing was now at an end, and then that great feeling of emptiness took over.

That same feeling that came with finishing a book series and then not knowing what to do with yourself anymore.

Shin'en stood there, some burning tents and dozens of corpses around him. Arashi soon appeared, quickly followed by the others.

"What the hell?" the leader asked. "You weren't supposed to do anything unless there was a good enough reason. I saw what you did through the linked feed, and some freak going after a couple of kids was _not_ good enough reason."

Shin'en tilted his head up at his superior. "It was good enough to me."

Arashi stared down at the demigod. Something was off about him, something dangerous. The Uzumaki was feeling like he was living the phrase "walking on thin ice." The atmosphere certainly didn't help, with the carnage about, the stench, the burning tents casting flickering lights across Shin'en's blood-stained mask.

Arashi decided that this wasn't a battle that needed to be fought. Besides, the Rebel objective was accomplished, the Loyalist camp destroyed and all its occupants dead, and there were no survivors, meaning no witnesses, which also meant that there were a lot of bodies that could be harvested for parts.

"Fine then," Arashi conceded. "Yūrei, package the bodies, then we're done here."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the hideout, come morning, Sukina gently rapped on Shin'en's door. At the admittance given, she entered.

"You okay, kiddo?"

"I'm fine," Shin'en said simply.

Then he stabbed the fourteenth senbon through his hand.

"That doesn't hurt?"

Shin'en shook his head. "Not really. But it does a good job keeping them from giving me a headache."

"I thought you put them all on ice."

"They keep breaking out. It's annoying. Hiyumi and Nanako do what they can, but Gatou and Sachiko are rowdy, and Kimiko just cries."

"Ah." Sukina's experience with eleven-year-olds and their severe psychological problems had broadened over the sixteen months she had spent with Shin'en. "Come on. Let's get that hand cleaned up and light a couple up."

"Can we listen to some music, too?"

"Of course."

Two minutes later, Shin'en was sitting in Sukina's lap at her desk, headphones over their ears as they listened to a soothing beat the orangette had made on her laptop, a couple of blunts on their mouths.

The cannabis of the Shinobi World was different; its effects had to be more powerful in order to achieve the desired high, due to the stronger immune system created by chakra, and the sour scent of the chemicals needed to be almost nonexistent, because shinobi had higher senses of smell, and none of them wanted to go around smelling and smelling like a skunk's rotten asshole.

It was also detrimental to stealth incursions to be stinking up everything as well.

That was the main reason Sukina had suggested a quick smoke: Arashi already had another mission lined up, and Shin'en's psyche was balancing on a wire at this point. He hadn't slept since the roughly fifteen minute nap he took yesterday, and that nap had been plagued by visions if all the REM going on was any indication, and before that he hadn't slept in four days.

His eating wasn't very good, either.

Sukina had observed him poking through the ground in a daze, putting any bug he found—worms, termites, ants, centipedes, millipedes—immediately down his throat. While good protein, it was a deplorable meal overall. So, the orangette's plan was to get both her and Shin'en to smell as strong as possible, even through the odor-blocking Seals of their uniforms, so when Arashi came calling, he'd have to let them stay here because they smelled too strongly to be allowed on a stealth mission.

It would've worked if the mission Arashi had lined up was actually a stealth mission.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Town of Minashigo_

 _200 miles away from the hideout_

 _March 2, 1012 A.S._

Shin'en felt something tingling in the back of his mind at this mission. Something about it was wrong. The mission itself was nothing spectacular, just some real estate agent looking to clear out some land in order to buy it cheap and build whatever he wanted on the property, it was just that the land in question was occupied by a few buildings, and Yūrei had been contracted to demolish them.

With no regard for anyone inside.

When Shin'en asked which buildings they were going to destroy, Arashi only answered with a brief, smartass "Ones with people in them."

The demigod took that to mean an apartment complex or something of the like, but he wasn't entirely convinced. His faith was even more shaken when they arrived at Minashigo, arrived at the land they were supposed to clear out, and he found it to be a school.

Or something like a school, anyway.

There was a big central building, a plethora of smaller buildings, and a couple of playgrounds. Inside the complex, Shin'en felt the water inside the bodies of all ages, from pregnant teenagers, to infants, toddlers, children, prepubescents, teens, and adults. It seemed that not only was this a school, it was also a daycare.

"This is dumb," Shin'en said into his mask, being heard by the whole team. "We're supposed to be helping the Rebellion, not this grunt work, killing kids."

"Irrelevant," Arashi said. "We're helping the Rebellion anyway. The money we're going to make tonight will go towards weapons, armaments, and supplies."

"All of which would also be irrelevant if we were taking it to Yagura instead of running around the Land of Water to blow up property."

" _Desist_ , Shin'en," the leader commanded with and edge.

"Come on, kiddo," Sukina said gently, playing good cop. "Just bear with it for now, and we'll talk later."

The Abyss growled into his mask. "Fine. Let's just get this over with."

And Yūrei got it over with. In the waning hours of the evening, they danced from shadow to shadow, placing explosive tags in key positions to cause the maximum damage. The maximum damage being complete and total annihilation. The whole exercise took less than two minutes, and the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist were at their rendezvous point in almost record time.

"Charges placed?" Arashi asked.

He received four positive nods.

"Alright. Get ready for fireworks."

He made the half-Ram Sign…and nothing happened. Arashi raised a brow under his mask, and kept sending out the chakra pulses necessary for triggering the tags, but nothing happened. He lowered his brow and then raised his other one.

"Bullock," Arashi started, "which tags did you grab?"

"The new ones."

"Did they have the Ram Receiver written on them?"

"Uh…yes…?"

"Then why, pray tell, are they not detonating with Ram-molded chakra?"

"…because they might not have had the Ram Receiver on them…?"

"A plausible theory, yes. Do you have any idea what Receiver they do have on them?"

"How about," Yūwaku broke in, "instead of grilling Bullock, you just run through all the activations?"

"Or, even better," Sukina suggested, "we go down there and check in person?"

Shin'en had already done that and was already back before Yūwaku had finished her sentence. "There isn't a Receiver on any of them. They're all blank charges."

Arashi turned his sadistic-looking mask to Bullock, and the green-haired man had several large beads of sweat pouring down the back of his head.

"Oh, give it a rest. All explosive tags detonate with a powerful enough energy surge," Shin'en said.

I.e., a bolt of lightning.

The demigod made a few Hand Seals, then sent a bolt of Lightning chakra into the darkening sky.

"Lightning Style: Thunder Gate."

Lightning bolts shot from the heavens and bombarded the property, detonating all the explosive tags and adding their own explosive power to the mix, completely decimating everything.

Something came flying from the rising cloud of smoke, and it buried itself in the ground about three feet from where Shin'en was standing. It was the dedication plaque on the front of the main building, having miraculously survived the explosion, and even more miraculously landing right where Shin'en could read the big words of the property's name.

 _Minashigo Home for Orphaned Children._

The demigod felt his heart stop.

"Orphaned Children."

His breathing became heavy.

"Orphaned."

His heart thundered against his ribcage.

"Orphans."

Shin'en felt like he was about to split apart as the gravity of what he had just so casually done hit him like freight train. He had just blown up an orphanage. Worse, he had just blown up an orphanage using the same jutsu as _that_ night, used by _that_ woman. He started hyperventilating, his throat constricted, his—

 _BA-CRANG!_

Suddenly everything came to a halt.

It felt like a shot fired from a railgun had just went through his head, taking with it a gallon of syrup. Suddenly, Shin'en felt like he was waking up from a fever dream, with his mind clear and focused, and now that it was, he was left with one singular thought:

 _WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCKING HELL HAD HE BEEN DOING FOR THE PAST SIXTEEN MONTHS!?_

Crossdressing, torturing people, turning into a physical girl, multiple personalities, assassinations, killing children and infants, and so much more.

 _What the fuck!?_

He wasn't here for any of this; he was here for the sole purpose of killing Yagura and wiping the Hidden Mist from the face of the Earth along with all its shinobi, not gallivanting around as some mercenary fire hire. This was unacceptable, this was incomputable, this was—this was-this was-thiswas

 _This was all_ _their_ _fault._

With his mind as clear and focused as it was the day he turned ten and arrived in this war-torn country, now free of their brainwashing due to the overwhelming shock of having done the very thing Ameyuri Ringo had done five years ago, the Abyss turned to look at Yūrei, and all four shinobi took stances and produced weapons at the sheer danger they felt coming from their youngest member.

"You bastards…" Shin'en said lowly. "You _fucking_ bastards. If a big part of me wasn't telling me _not_ to kill all of you, I'd split you all from your bellies to your brains."

He dissipated into water vapor before he did just that, and reassembled miles away. There, he let his fury at this betrayal boil over, and he very nearly reached an Awakening. However, this episode was not _that_ emotionally devastating.

Still, his power raged, and he opened up three of his Inner Gates, and was boosted even further by the activation of the Lightning Armor and the pouring rain falling from clouds brought together by his powers as the son of the Stormbringer.

Then Shin'en shot off, faster than a bullet and then faster than sound, heading for the Hidden Mist with increasing speed. He was going to do what he had sworn to do years ago, and start killing all the ninja in the world. The war didn't matter anymore, Mei didn't matter, Yugito didn't matter, Yūrei didn't matter, Persephone didn't matter.

All that mattered was death.

In mere minutes, Shin'en was at the Hidden Mist, and he went right on through the actual mist barrier surrounding the village, setting off every alarm the established city had built into it. Shinobi ran for weapons and civilians for shelters, because the sheer amount of chakra Shin'en was putting out had tricked the sensors into thinking there was an army invading.

However, despite all this movement, anyone, even the fastest shinobi, barely had time to take two steps before Shin'en was in Yagura's very office, and the great Fourth Mizukage, the third person in all of recorded history to attain full mastery over a Tailed-Beast, behind Hashirama and Madara, didn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell against the hydrokinesis of Percy Jackson.

That unfair power, that godlike power, to instantly bring about an end to the likes of Goku, Superman, Saitama, the Hulk, and all beings of organic life.

Yagura's whole body exploded without a fight, and Shin'en watched, his brain in a hyper-processive state, as every little piece went flying in all directions. It was very satisfying.

But then things got weird when it all just…stopped moving in midair.

Everything stopped. The shinobi, the civilians, the animals, the water in the air—all of it stopped.

And then there was flash of light, and Shin'en suddenly woke up in his bed back at the hideout, the last thing he remembered was getting back after blowing up a Loyalist compound. He felt refreshed and well.

Sukina knocked on his door, and he bid her enter.

"Morning, kiddo. Come on, breakfast is almost done."

Shin'en eagerly joined the orangette and the rest of Yūrei in chowing down on a wide assortment of pancakes, gypsy toast, waffles, bacon, eggs, hash browns, grits, biscuits, and various fruit juices.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **So that was the Breaking Point.**_

 _ **The shocking realization that he had become the very thing he had sworn to destroy being the final straw in all the mental weight that was piling on him from memories and experiences of things that Gatou, Sachiko, and Nanako had done.**_

 _ **Gypsy toast is another name for French toast, a name that wouldn't make any sense in a world where France doesn't exist.**_

 _ **For those confused at what the hell just happened, that was Susano'o doing the same thing he did back in Chapter 22 of**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, after Shin'en decided to just screw it and he killed half the canon cast during the preliminary fights of the Chunin Exams. Susano'o reset the timeline from a fixed point and started things over again to make sure things that were supposed to happen…happened.**_

 _ **Like I said up top, Susano'o ex Machina.**_

 _ **I also have good news: I've still got my muse singing loudly to me on this story, and so it shall continue…up until I finish with the grand Blood War arc. After the war ends, and the rest of the Memory Arc continues into other memories where Shin'en's soul got scattered into, primarily his times with the twins and with Xenophobic Asteria and Annabeth, I'm going on a break.**_

 _ **Not to continue with a fanfic, though I do need to kick my ass into gear and finish of**_ **Ghoul** _ **, but because I intend to kick my ass into gear and get back onto my novel. I finally finished the first day of school, and now I need to finish the first day of work at the grocery store.**_

 _ **Anyway, Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	40. Aokigahara

_Aokigahara_

 _ **I'm thinking maybe three or four more chapters until things kick off for real, counting this one.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A little known fact about the Land of Water was that the Mizukage was a highly criticized figure. It was just that no one openly did so for fear of the Secret Police being around a corner or hiding in a shadow, just waiting for you to say something so they could arrest you and do whatever they wanted with you.

Yagura's stance on those he perceived as traitors was brutal, and the laws he had signed into effect reflected this. It also didn't help that the bulk of his army was comprised of bloodthirsty monsters of human beings, that didn't care so much for the war so much as for the opportunity to kill something or someone. The Seven Swordsman—or rather, the _Six_ Swordsman, seeing as how Ameyuri was still officially listed as MIA, and her Kiba unrecovered—were great examples of this.

They kept troops in line with their pointed teeth and expert kenjutsu abilities. Each one had a reservoir of chakra and the skills to match, all of them Elite Jonin in title and ability. A common misconception was that if you took their swords away they became powerless; the opposite was true, for each Swordsman had a psychological connection to their blade, and to separate them from it was tantamount to stealing a baby crocodile away from its mother.

Not a good idea.

The Seven Swordsman were great enforcers of Yagura's fascist regime, not necessarily because they believed in the cause, but because they got to kill people for whatever shitty reason they could come up with, and all the lower tier soldiers followed suit. There were exceptions, since there were always exceptions, but those exceptions were very, very quiet people.

Because the alternative wasn't just death, it was torture that made you beg for death, and then it was even more torture after that.

Yagura did not play around.

Still, there were always those willing to stand against the tide, those willing to reject the lunacy, and when they were in large numbers (and had a contingent of bloodline-enhanced shinobi) they spoke out. Loudly.

A rebel band that had nothing to do with the actual Rebels had taken over the majority of the Island of Iwa Jimo, the island directly to the Northwest of the main island. It was nothing but a large group of civilians led by veterans of the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars, with bloodline users to back up the small quantity with some quality.

As Yagura stood in his office, the setting sun at such a low level that he could look at it without damaging his eyes, he mused on what to do about such a problem.

Though, perhaps problem was too strong a word. The brigands were hardly doing anything to cripple the war effort, just launching small hit and run attacks that hardly did anything but annoy the forces Yagura had stationed on Iwa Jimo. That direction wasn't even in the way of any shipping lanes, with the Land of Water's main ports being on the peninsula on the Land of Fire and the coast of the Land of Lightning.

The real threat the brigands posed was a metaphorical one. If they could stand up to him, Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage and master of the Three-Tails, when they were nothing but a weak group of no more than a hundred inexperienced grunts and a couple of good old people, then who else could stand up to Yagura?

The thought made the Mizukage growl.

He was _besieged_ on all sides by _insects_ that couldn't understand that what he was doing was for the _good_ of all the Land of Water, and even further, the whole of the Shinobi World. These bloodline users were of impure blood; they were cheaters and usurpers, easily achieving what others had to struggle and bleed for. They were arrogant, believing their tainted gifts made them special and worthy of some kind of privilege, like the filth running through their blood made them superior.

Yagura scoffed aloud.

He had gone through the academy, and he had gone through the ranks. Yes, he looked quite young and was short, but he was a man approaching his thirties. He theorized that it was the chakra of the Three-Tails that was to blame for his stature and youthful appearance. There were species of turtles, after all, that had been recorded to live longer than two centuries.

How such knowledge benefitted the Shinobi World, Yagura didn't know, nor did he know why any self-respecting person would dedicate their life to observing a turtle, but he did know that during his time in the academy and the ranks, he had seen the taint of the bloodlines. The clan children lording their blood status over the civilian students, being granted high ranks over more qualified, more capable shinobi.

It was a system that Yagura did not tolerate, and the Kaguya attack on the village had given the opportunity to make his visions a reality. Now, he had gotten the majority of his land to see things his way, and the bloodline users were seen as cursed individuals that brought bad luck and turmoil everywhere they went, and they needed to be destroyed on the spot.

It was going so well, too. Years had passed and there had been nothing but successful raids and executions, with citizens performing their duty and turning over any bloodline users they knew.

Then Mei Terumi, a respected Jonin, had revealed herself as a bloodline user, and got hundreds to rally to her cause, creating a guerilla-oriented militia that had been directly responsible for the lives of no less than two thousand loyal Hidden Mist shinobi.

Two thousand good men and women that had given their lives to the noble and righteous cause of ridding the world of the filthy and arrogant bloodline scourge.

The sun had disappeared under the distant mountains now, leaving Yagura alone in the dark of his office, which brought him back to what he needed to be thinking about.

The brigands on Iwa Jimo, and the symbolic threat they posed.

They were such a small issue, barely a thorn in his side, really, but they were a thorn that could be plucked out without ease. It was just a question of how much effort he wanted to put into the plucking, and how many good soldiers he was willing to risk in dealing with a pest problem.

The answer: none.

Yagura was not going to risk the lives of loyal men just to get rid of some brigands. That was why there was an infamous mercenaries-for-hire group that operated somewhere in the Land of Water, a group willing to take on any mission for the right price.

Yagura didn't really like using them, though. The results they had yielded on previous contracts were nothing less than superb, but he was absolutely certain that there were bloodline users in the group. He was also speculating whether they were truly freelance mercenaries, or if they were actually agents of someone else.

They appeared on the battlefield once in a blue moon, and they killed everyone there, his men and the Rebel scum alike, and that was where the suspicion arose. All the battles these mercenary shinobi took place in were battles that Rebels were losing, and wiping clean the board presented an advantage to the Rebels, in which they could move in and establish control over an area.

Yagura was suspicious of this group, suspicious on whether they aligned themselves with the Rebels and Mei Terumi. He had often considered hiring the group to kill the woman, just to test his theories, but he had never done it and it was never such a pressing issue that he stooped so low as to hire potential bloodline users to undertake such an important task.

However, for such an unimportant task as getting rid of some nuisances on Iwa Jimo, at the expense of _no_ Loyalist casualties and only a few hundred thousand ryō…why not?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _March 18, 1012 A.S._

 _Y_ _ūrei's hideout_

Shin'en crossed his arms and puffed out his cheeks. "I get why, but _why_? Shouldn't we be helping these guys instead of going out there and killing them? Especially for Yagura?"

"Think of it like this," Arashi said, "the more missions we do for Yagura, the more he'll trust us, and the more he trusts us, the more he'll interact with us and get comfortable around us, and that can open up a chance to kill him."

Shin'en maintained his pout. "All I need to do is get within five hundred feet of him to effectively use my hydrokinesis to make his heart stop."

It was a trick Yūrei had used many times before in their many assassinations. Why make the risk of things higher when they can just get Shin'en close enough to make someone have a heart attack? Granted, there were many times in which they needed the body, so using hydrokinesis was mute, but still.

Arashi kept a neutral face. "True, but do you want to kill him from a distance like that, or do you want to be there in person, running your sword through his chest to watch the life fade from his eyes?"

"…I want to run him through…"

"Exactly. Now suit up. We've an island to get to."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Island of Iwa Jimo_

 _Village of Aokigahara_

 _March 19, 1012 A.S._

At the time Yūrei left their hideout, and by the time they arrived at the island, nearly a whole day had gone by. The headquarters of their quarry was the dominant village of the island, a place Aokigahara. It was a moderately sized settlement nestled in a clearing, with almost a hundred huts of varying sizes. Houses, schools, hospitals, stores, the usual places for a rebel encampment.

"Shin'en, what can you sense?" Arashi asked.

"Two hundred and thirteen people, fifteen dogs, eighteen cats, three hamsters and a parrot. Three weapon depots. One hospital. A daycare. A school. Of those two hundred and thirteen people, one hundred and eighty-seven of them have active chakra networks, and of those twenty-three of them have bloodlines."

"And we're going to kill all of them," Arashi said with his arms crossed, "while also doing it in a way that sends a message to all the Land of Water not to piss off Yagura."

"I still can't believe we're doing this," Shin'en grumbled. "I still don't get why Mei hasn't told us to kill that little bastard yet."

"In time you'll understand," Arashi said. He placed a hand on Shin'en's shoulder. "For now, we do as we're told, and we've been told to send a message."

"Are you sure this message won't inspire, instead of cow?"

Arashi shrugged. "Not our problem. We're just being paid to kill some people. Now, remember what we planned?"

"Duh."

"Remember the backup plan?"

"Duh, again, but come on. When have we ever actually had to use any of our backup plans?"

"Never," Arashi admitted, "and that's because we're that good."

Shin'en crossed his arms petulantly. "No, it's because I'm that awesome, and can sense things happening all over the place, meaning I can warn all of you about impending danger that you can't see."

"And we've all been very grateful," Sukina said.

She stepped up and stooped to give Shin'en a kiss on his forehead.

"Alright," Arashi said. "It's time to go to work."

And to work they went. The plan they made was a gruesome one, one that would surely blast a hole into the minds of anyone willing to cross Yagura of the Three-Tails. Truly, though, this plan involved the implementation of a new technique, one that Shin'en had been practicing, and it revolved around his Essence Projection.

For those that do not know or have forgotten, per the DelayedInspiration canon, Essence Projection is the divine technique of half-bloods and the otherwise immortal to see into the past, the present, and the future. It has been demonstrated many times in Riordan canon, most commonly as "demigod dreams." It is also something that Shin'en has demonstrated mastery over, using this divine ability to see things that he wanted to see, and go to places that he wanted to go.

It was also seen, only once, in the story of _Xenophobic_ , when Shin'en was first introduced to the twisted version of Sally Jackson, and her even more twisted wife, Marian Janson, and the following night he used the power of Essence Projection to invade their dreams, and subject them to nightmares….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the dark of the night they came, and no one knew. None of the shinobi in this little village had any capability or experience against these ninja and their prowess. They came into homes and stole away the children with less sound than an ant crawling through a shag carpet.

Then, with the children in their possession, these horrible ninja went to work. Truly, animals in slaughter houses were treated with more care and respect than what these children experienced, with their bodies violently torn apart; their skin was sheered from their muscle, their muscle sheered from their bone, and their bones broken apart. Their organs were ripped out, their blood drained, and all the pieces neatly assembled for future use.

And all this time, the littles of these ninja was using an unexplainable power to make people _watch_. The parents of these children, the grandparents, the eldest siblings—everyone in the Village of Aokigahara had their dreams pulled into watching the evisceration of kids no older than ten.

And then they woke up.

Panic and chaos ensued. Parents went tearing to their son's and daughter's rooms, and mothers screamed and fathers roared and not finding their offspring safely tucked away for the night. Then, even amidst all the noises, one particularly horrified, agonized shriek split the night and everyone came running, only to mirror that shriek.

There, in the middle of the village, crucified, were the twisted remains of all twenty-three children.

It was something that would've made Jashin's child orgasm upon himself at the sheer gruesomeness of it all. The skinless, muscleless skeletons, streaked with red fat, with strips of skin draped over them like ponchos, bits of organ used like jewelry, and little wooden signs with names scribbled on them, tied around each skeleton to identify them, with a chord of intestine.

There were no known words to describe the amount of pain, anguish, sorrow, despair, and hurt in the air of Aokigahara that night, but soon enough it would all climax. Suddenly, fires erupted all over the village, streaking from hut to hut, and a ring of fire roared to life around the village.

This was the Land of Water, however, and over ninety percent of the shinobi population of the country had a primary Water Chakra to them, and the shinobi present in Aokigahara immediately launched their jutsu, but the water-natured chakra evaporated on contact with the fires, for these fires were fueled by the Sealing Jutsu of one of the last Uzumaki alive, and he knew his craft well.

Some tried jumping over the fires, but something cut them apart upon a certain altitude, like there were very thin blade suspended in the air. The fires suddenly picked up their intensity, and the heat scorched the land.

The brave people of Aokigahara died in various way that night. Some were granted a mercy killing, some committed suicide, others tried in vain to find a way out, and others went back to their homes, cradling the bloody, rancid skeletons of their children, and died in the fire. The screaming was unbearable.

Overall, the fate of those who dared to openly defy Yagura was fire, as all were cremated that night.

And in the trees, five sadistically grinning masks were illuminated by the flickering yellow light.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **I'm thinking chapters are going to be shorter for a bit, because for some reason, I push myself to get up to 4k, but sometimes a lot of that is unneeded dialogue and filler stuff, and I think it derails from the important stuff.**_

 _ **This chapter was short, sweet, and to the point.**_

 _ **Arguably, the most brutal one, too. I mean…kids…butchered…alive…then put on display…their families made to watch from a dream…and then the helplessness as they felt the encroaching heat of the flame with no way to douse it or escape.**_

 _ **Also keep in mind that I may be jumping several weeks at a time, but stuff is still happening in all the time skips. Boring stuff, yeah, but stuff. More dreams of things Persephone is doing or has done or will do, dreams of other canon happenings, other missions involving killing people.**_

 _ **Just remember that the premise behind all this is that Kronos' scythe splintered Shin'en's soul, and the fragments scattered throughout his memories, and all the things being shown are the memories that have fragments in them, so some important things won't get seen.**_

 _ **Just a reminder.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūrei returned to their base in almost record time.

Arashi produced the bottle of sake and the shot glasses, and distributed the drink and the drink holders amongst his squad. When the practice was over and all cups were full, he raised his glass.

"To the dead."

Sukina, Bullock, Yūwaku, and Shin'en raised their glasses as well, speaking as one.

"And to the next man to die."

Together, the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist toasted to lives lost, and the lives yet to be taken.


	41. The Hole

_The Hole_

 _ **Sorry for how long this took. Math hit me hard this past week, and the teacher grades based on a nitpicking scale, so my grade is sitting at an 85, compared to my usual of a 95. Damnit, I haven't had a B in math since seventh grade.**_

 _ **Anyway, you're here for more stuff that happened during the Blood War, not listen to my woes.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

During the Aokigahara mission, Yūrei had filmed the whole thing with the cameras in their masks, and Sukina had used her laptop to edit the footage, cutting out some things, adding some things, enhancing some things, and just making the video as good as Arashi wanted it. When the leader had been satisfied with the shape shifter's efforts, she burned the footage onto a disc, and that disc was discretely delivered to one of Yagura's agents, and it was out of Yūrei's hands then.

Apparently, copies were made and shipped throughout the Land of Water, and the videos were played nationwide, in schools, on televisions, at corporate buildings, on docks, industrial places, everywhere.

By the end of March, Yagura had ensured that the whole of his nation had seen the example of Aokigahara, and it had a profound effect: morale throughout the Land of Water was lowered in the civilian populace, they became more scared of the pint-sized tyrant, and the Rebels became subdued, much to Mei's worry and ire.

There were some people that tried to make something of the video, trying to use it as a platform to start an insurrection, but those people were quickly brought down. Not by any shinobi—not Yūrei, Loyalists or Rebels—but these people were brought down by their fellow people.

The terror inspired by what transpired at Aokigahara at the hands of the Bloody Ghosts could not be understated.

It became such that Aokigahara was spoken with the same hushed tones as when one spoke about…the _Hole_.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _May 2, 1012 A.S._

The whole month of April passed with nearly nothing noteworthy happening. Yūrei liberated some slaves and then blew up a school, and that was about the only things exciting that happened amongst their list of missions. All they mostly did was the same thing they mostly did every month: kill people in droves overnight.

Really, Shin'en was getting very bored with the proceedings of the Blood War, and its seeming stagnation. It was to be expected, of course, because despite the Bloodline Rebels being officially recognized as a national threat, they had no official army, no official base of operations, and nothing official about them, really. They operated with hit-and-run attacks, sometimes a coordinated strike if they had enough planning and people, and very rarely did they engage in open battle.

Despite Mei's arrangement with the Hidden Cloud, in that exchange for Shin'en, she got weapons, clothes, food, training, and other things from the militarized stronghold of the Raikage, she was still underequipped to deal with the forces of a tyrannical Hidden Village, mostly because the soldiers under her command sucked.

The Loyalists on the other hand, had no such problem with equipment and staff, as they were just chalk full of powerful shinobi and weapons. They did have a standing army; they did have a standing headquarters, they did have a standing leader—a very powerful one at that. Yagura might have been the Three-Tails Jinchuuriki, but he was still every bit the Kage he was without the Tailed-Beast.

It was on-going search for Mei to find the Six-Tails Jinchuuriki, Utakata, who had gone AWOL about a year of the Kaguya attack. She would've assigned Yūrei to the task of finding the young man, but she had far more important things to assign the ultimate hunter squad.

Like this particular mission, in the hopes of boosting the morale of her troops after the Aokigahara video and the brutality of Yūrei became even more widely known.

Shin'en was occupying his time with Sukina, sharing a smoke with her as they both chilled to one of the orangette's softer beats. The big photo collage on her wall had even more pictures on it now, more pictures of Shin'en and the rest of the Ghosts doing things.

The demigod and Bullock fishing together.

Shin'en hunting with Yūwaku.

Shin'en checkmating an embarrassed Arashi.

And then perhaps Sukina's favorite: the boy snuggled into her bosom, sound asleep, with a little trail of drool coming out of his mouth.

There was also the picture from the "Christmas" of 1010, with all the Ghosts gathered and smiling, as if they weren't serial murderers.

There dozens of other pictures of course, but those were definitely Sukina's top five, and that whole collage board was her most prized possession, even more than her laptop.

Then there was a soft knock at the door, heard even through the soft din of Sukina's slow beats being projected directly into their ears via headphones. She stopped the music just as Arashi opened the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en's nose was upturned in that way a nose got upturned when its owner was bewildered beyond belief.

"Mei wants to find and destroy a hole? Like, which hole? There's thousands of them."

"Not _a_ hole," Sukina said, " _the_ Hole."

" _The_ hole? What makes _the_ hole so much more important than _a_ hole? And stop beating around the bush and just give me a straight answer!" Shin'en huffed.

"Well," Arashi said, "since you asked so nicely. _The_ Hole, with a capital 'H,' is a black site so secret, that even we don't know where it is. Granted, we've never actually looked, but that's besides the point. The important part is that the only things known about the Hole is the rumors that surround the place, like how people go in and are never seen again, or it's where demons live, or a witch lives there and she eats people, other stupid things, but we know for a fact is that the Hole exists, and Yagura is control of it. We managed to beat that out of an official before she died."

"And now Mei wants us to find it, and destroy it. Is that all? Anything else to it?"

"Nope. Find it and erase it."

"Oh. Shouldn't be too hard, then."

"No," Arashi agreed, though his tone implied there was more in his mind, and he put his thoughts into words, "but the Hole presents an opportunity for learning. Just what goes on there—is it a weapon's facility, a special prison, a resort, a training place, a treasury? Just what that place is will depend on what we do with it. We're going to blow it up, yes, but what happens before we blow it up will be determined by what goes on there. So, get to work."

Shin'en blinked. "Huh?"

"You're special demigod-locatey-thingy. Get to sleep, and go find the Hole."

Shin'en just stared at Arashi.

"What? Can't do it?"

"No, I can do it. I just don't like that you _assume_ I can do it."

This time, Arashi blinked. "Just get to work."

Shin'en blew him a raspberry, and headed off for his room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He only managed to fall asleep after just an hour of rolling around on his bed, since the last time he slept had been four days ago for five hours. His body had adjusted to long periods without sleep, and so it had been difficult to wind himself down for this little catnap.

After he was asleep, however, separating his essence from his body was easy enough, and invoking the divine principle that had his essence going where he wanted it to go was just as easy. Shin'en's spirit zoomed across the Land of Water, heading for the northeastern tip of the main island. At a point, he did indeed find a hole, one big enough to drive an elephant in to.

At the hole, Hidden Mist ANBU were kicking men and women dressed in rags over the lip of the hole, and Shin'en went down there to find out what was going on, because Arashi had said what was happening down there would dictate what Yūrei's chosen course of action would be. Personally, Shin'en was hoping it was just a run of the mill prison that he and the others would raid, slaughtering everyone inside, and looting all valuables they found.

However, Shin'en never did get to find out what was happening down in the Hole, because somehow, some way, his essence couldn't get past the lip. No matter how much he tried, no matter how much divine juice he put into the effort, he couldn't get past whatever invisible barrier was there, which meant only one thing:

A god was interfering.

The thought irritated Shin'en, because he already dealt with Susano'o enough, he did not want to have to tangle with another Shinto deity. Yes, that's right; Shin'en did not fault Susano'o for this because he was of the firm mind that the storm god would not hinder him in such a way. Susano'o said over two years ago that the Blood War was his (Shin'en's) to navigate, and so, in Shin'en's mind, it didn't make sense for the god of valor to do something so bold.

So, no, there was some other divine hand at play, and it irritated Shin'en for no other reason than he was going to have to go to this place in person to feel out the water in the air and in the people to figure out what was going on inside.

However, it was apparently a supermax prison black site being utilized by a dictator that looked like he still wet his bead in an era of civil war, so Shin'en theorized that he was going to be getting a feel for a lot of sex and torture.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So, what'd you find?" Arashi asked when Shin'en woke up from his nap and joined his team back in the briefing room.

"The location," and the tone in his voice keyed Yūrei into the fact that something was up, and Shin'en wasted no time in elaborating. "I found where it was at, but when I tried to get down in there, something was blocking me. The only thing in this world that can block my Essence Projection in another god, so…yeah. There's a god somewhere that didn't want me going inside."

Arashi shared a look with Sukina, Bullock, and Yūwaku.

Demigod stuff was something none of them knew about. It was uncharted territory, nothing but a slew of unknowns and variables. We were talking about _divine_ stuff, metaphysics, the unexplainable by mortal minds. If there was a god keeping Shin'en out of the Hole, what did that mean for them, mere humans?

And just what did that mean for the mission at hand, if there was a divine force in play?

Arashi jerked his head to the side, eliciting a series of pops. "We continue as planned. Suit up, and we'll cross the bridge when we get to it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _May 3, 1012 A.S._

 _The Hole_

It took Yūrei nearly a whole day to get from their base to the northeastern tip of the main island, and they arrived with the sun in its low hours.

"What do you feel, Shin'en?" Arashi asked.

The demigod reached out with hydro sensory powers, and got a feel for the place.

"Twenty sub levels…five hundred and sixty-one armed guards, all shinobi…two thousand and eighteen non-shinobi, presumably prisoners…eight hundred dogs of varying breeds…two hundred and seven horses…deplorable living conditions…rape…torture…" Shin'en crossed his arms. "It's just another fucking sex dungeon."

Yūrei shared in the demigod's disappointment. Honestly, they were hoping for something a lot juicier than that.

"Are you sure?" Bullock asked with what amounted to a whine in his voice. "There isn't like, some celled-off monster, like an experiment gone wrong? Nothing sciencey?"

Shin'en spent three more minutes combing over the Hole one more time. He shook his head. "No monsters. Unless humans count as monsters, in which case, there's twenty-six hundred monsters."

A silence fell over the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist as they digested what they considered to be a major disappointment.

"So," Shin'en broke the silence, "are we gonna just go down there and blow everything up, or…?"

"No, that's a stupid idea. Did you happen to analyze what armaments and security measures were in place down there?" Arashi grilled.

"…no."

"So for all we know, unless you have a specific key on you, like a Seal or a chakra signature, you could instantly be fried as soon as you pass a certain point."

"That is a possibility," Shin'en agreed.

"Or we could be rendered unconscious and we could all wake up with ball gags in out mouths, strapped down to a table with our legs spread wide and held up, with a horse cock-shaped dildo heading for our assholes."

Shin'en blinked. "That sounds like you're speaking from personal experience…"

"I am. That was a _very_ bad day."

Shin'en waited for elaboration, and when there wasn't any, he said, "I'm gonna go get one of those ANBU over there, let Gatou do his thing, and then make a plan depending on what he gets."

Arashi nodded. "Excellent. Now, what's your backup plan?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en's described process went over smoothly, and the ANBU gave Yūrei a wealth of information. There were indeed security measures that would activate should one not be keyed into the Hole's chakra field, and to be keyed-in you needed both a specific Seal, and a little device.

It turns out the Hole's security systems were prototypes for hybridization for shinobi jutsu and civilian technologies.

That was actually a rather important point, as it's going to come up in later chapters.

Anyway, the ANBU was generous enough to fork over his key, and reveal what the Seal looked like and how to draw it, all in the promise of being released so that he could see his family again. His family consisting of a pregnant wife, widowed mother, two toddler girls, and an infant boy. Yūrei granted this request with their fingers crossed behind their backs.

"Now what's the plan?" Bullock asked as Sukina finished packaging up the ANBU for a later black market sale.

Arashi looked at Shin'en. "Come here." Shin'en obeyed, and the leader drew the Seal on his neck in record time. "Get down in there, disable everything, and when you do, we'll get down there ourselves and slaughter the lot of them, then Seal up every body, sword, piece of armor and ryō that we find."

Shin'en saluted and turned into mist. He traveled seamlessly through the mist-laden air, completely invisible to anyone that looked, and the mist already in the area worked smashingly to keep him hidden. He went down the Hole's main entrance, and found that there was a neat pool of foam down at the bottom that the prisoners got dropped into, and then they were fished out by armored shinobi.

Shin'en went right for where he presumed the control center was, and was delighted that his presumption was correct. He solidified himself and invoked his hydrokinesis, killing the dozen individuals in the large room full of computers and screens.

That's when the alarms went off, and Shin'en frowned under his mask. The ANBU hadn't said anything about the deaths of the guards resulting in alarms. Oh, well. It couldn't be helped, Shin'en supposed.

He was actually kind of excited, really, as this was the first time that Plan A had gone screwy, and Plan B had to be implemented. What was Plan B, you ask? Well, it's a simple plan, short, easy to remember:

Shin'en got to kill everyone in this place by himself.

The big door behind him opened to let in a host of armed and armored guards, and he channeled chakra to the Seals on the palms of his hands, releasing the Lightning Fangs in twin poofs of smoke. Shin'en spun around and got to work, vanishing and reappearing behind the host of guards. A split-second after his disappearing act, they all fell apart in pieces.

Part of Plan B was less focus on collecting corpses and more on killing the populace.

Shin'en created fifty Shadow Clones on the spot, and sent them away to speed things up. Because of how big this place was and how many people were here, him by himself—minus using his cheat trick—would probably take upwards of two hours to clear everyone out, and that was a practice he didn't feel like engaging in.

But he still wanted to savor as much of the bloodshed that he could, hence only fifty instead of a thousand.

Shin'en went one way, some Clones followed him, and other went the opposite way. Now, there was only one pair of Lightning Fangs, and Shin'en had those for himself, but Shadow Clones, when made, were made with any kind of Sealing jutsu on them that was present on their maker. Now, that didn't mean the everything in the Seal became duplicated, it just meant that there was another Seal in the world with specific access to the pocket dimension that contained whatever was inside the Seal.

Which was why Naruto's Shadow Clones could invoke the Nine-Tail's chakra, and there weren't hundreds of Nine-Tails copies made every time the Seventh Hokage split himself.

What this meant was that the Shadow Clones Shin'en made had access to all the weaponry he had Sealed away on his person.

Another thing about Shadow Clones was that they were creations of chakra, made purely of chakra, meaning they possessed no internal organs, no blood flow. They were just sentient chakra constructs whose intelligence, personality, skills, and knowledge all stemmed from the chakra they were made of. Because of this, no Shadow Clone Shin'en ever created, and no elemental clone he ever created, would have his divine powers, because his divine powers stemmed from his body, from the godly essence of Poseidon that was present in his cells.

However, Shin'en was working on a way to split his divine essence into his Clones, so that physical problem would be subverted. So far, no luck.

Still, that didn't mean that his Clones were completely without sensory abilities. Shin'en had trained his senses to superb levels, because he had discovered that little flaw in his Clones once he mastered the jutsu, and he made himself to where he could function as a sensor even without his hydrokinesis, with acute hearing and smell, and the ability to feel chakra signatures.

Cee was the Cloud's foremost sensor ninja, and he had taught Shin'en well, after all.

Now, those were the lore-based reasons for our anti-hero's Clones, both Shadow and elemental, not having his divine powers. The real reason was because our anti-hero was OP enough as it was, and being able to make divine duplicates of himself was just _way_ too much.

Anyway, back to the slaughter.

It was one-sided, because some genius had decided to hook up all the keys and Seals to a singular mainframe, and when one of Shin'en's Shadow Clones destroyed that mainframe, the guards' protections went kaput. Funnily enough, so did the Seals on the prisoners.

Those Seals were paralysis and marionette Seals, meaning that when activated, they took control of the nervous system, and then the user could direct the usee as they saw fit, but it seemed there was a default program in place that had the prisoner's immediately returning to their cells in the face of an emergency.

Like a demigod going on a rampage.

But with those Seals deactivated, and with many of the prisoners being POWs, all hell broke loose as the captive shinobi went toe-to-toe with their captors. And Shin'en made an exercise in equality, cutting everyone down left and right.

He had joined the Lightning Fangs together at their pommels, and was engaging in a way that would've had Darth Maul clapping in appreciation. Shin'en's swords wheeled and spun around him, making mincemeat of all.

He danced from foot to foot, level to level, person to person, cutting down everyone he came across. He killed people in his way; he went out of his way to kill people trying to hide elsewhere; he killed people trying to pretend like nothing was wrong, and were just trying to keep their heads down.

Shin'en didn't even spare the animals that were here in the Hole, or the women and girls pregnant with rape babies.

It took him and his Shadow Clones nearly a whole hour to clear out the supermax sex dungeon, and when he was done, there was but one person left. In the very bottom of the Hole was one woman; she was tall, well-muscled, had paper-white skin, dark hair that poofed all around her like she was living in the 80s, and wore a set of armor that covered her arms and legs, had a metal thong riding between her ass cheeks and coming up just high enough to cover her clitoris, and prongs coming over he shoulder blades to just barely cover her nipples.

Which left the entirety of her face, and the majority of her upper body, exposed.

Her eyes were strange, with her sclera being black, her pupils glowing red, and her irises a shining yellow.

"You are the one that made a mess of my prison," the woman said with a voice scary deep for a female.

Shin'en didn't answer verbally, merely inclining his head to where the grin along the bottom of his mask seemed to widen, becoming even more sadistic.

The woman's eye twitched.

"I'm going to beat you into submission, rape you, and sell you to the highest bidder…or I'll let Yagura have you, since you're one of the Yūrei."

Shin'en just pointed his conjoined Kiba at the woman, ready to fight.

She flexed her hand, and the armor there shifted, instantly transforming into a blade, and she did the same with her other hand. She tensed then shot forward, and Shin'en decided to have some fun.

Lightning sprang to life around his body as he activated the Lightning Armor Jutsu, which brought forth great surges in his strength, speed, and durability, and the nature of the jutsu worked just smashingly with the Kiba.

He vanished with a thunder clap, and reappeared a heartbeat later. His foot met the woman's side and sent her flying into the wall, leaving an impression there in the solid rock of her shape. The dust cloud hid her from view, but not from Shin'en's water powers. He sensed her go trotting out the side, her armor making her invisible, and he sensed her go still and point her arms forward.

Before her, a pink light shined for an instant before a jet of laser was released. Shin'en moved his Lightning Fang, and the laser was deflected off the flat and went sailing into the other wall, exploding. Some pebbles rained from above.

The woman became visible again, scowling.

Shin'en decided this wasn't worth his time, and attacked. That was when the woman showed she had some ability to her, and just managed to stay out of reach of Shin'en, even though he was increasing his speed with the Lightning Armor.

He discharged a bolt of lightning at her, and she nimbly dodged. The lightning impacted the wall and exploded, and Shin'en fired off several more bolts as she was staying out of his physical reach, and she managed to dodge each bolt. Of course, each bolt also exploded against the walls, and the ceiling was starting to crumble with its supports weakening.

Then, with one final blast, there was a terrifyingly loud sound, and it was clear to both combatants that the Hole was about the come crashing down. The woman smirked.

"Your inexperience shows. A true warrior would've known not to fire so aimlessly."

Shin'en didn't bother to tell the woman that in their game of tag he had dispelled his all but one of his Shadow Clones, and that one had used an invisibility jutsu to hide himself. That one had also been calmly waiting for an opportunity, and said opportunity just presented itself in the woman's perceived moment of triumph.

Shin'en had no idea how that armor provided any kind of protection, but he did know that A) its wearer became incredibly fast, B) its wearer had the ability to fire energy blasts, C) the wearer became very resistant to damage, and D) the wearer could make weapons of the armor.

None of that meant that the head couldn't have been lopped off with a well-placed strike of the sword.

Shin'en Sealed up the corpse and became like vapor just as the whole facility collapsed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And that's that. Shin'en brought down the Hole, which was originally going to be a much scarier and depraved institution, but I'm running out of patience, much like all of you are in regards to the plot moving along and getting in some Greek action.**_

 _ **Rejoice, for things change next chapter.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In addition to killing everyone, the Shadow Clones had also been looting and raiding, making off with a small catch of a little under a billion ryō in organs, cash, valuables, and weapons. There was also a wealth of new technology for Yūrei to analyze and figure out, but for now, they observed their post-mission ritual of honor.

Arashi raised his glass. "To the dead."

The other four raised their glasses. "And to the next man to die."


	42. The Start of the End

_The Start of the End_

' _ **Aight, y'all want it? Here it is! Just don't get mad if it ain't what you were expecting.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Horror…and sadness.

Those were their collective main emotions. At first.

Watching Kimiko grow to love the Yasaka family, the small troubles she went through with them, with her infections and rashes, the little episodes between her and Lady Yasaka, and then… _that_ night. The night Yūrei's programming took over and little Kimiko slaughtered the whole populace of the mansion.

Then right after that, they watched ten-year-old Percy viciously mutilate himself so that Kimiko's mental anguish wouldn't affect him.

Then came disgust and revulsion.

The Illegal Sex Rings of the Land of Water (who've got you covered)…yeah, the Greeks suffered through that whole montage with Percy, too. They even saw the episode in that nightclub with the bestiality and all the other pleasant stuff. Opinions changed, if only minutely, at seeing the murderous Percy Jackson actually do some good for the world.

It raised so many questions over just how this little boy, who was clearly touched in the head but with a good heart, became that monster they saw in the Chunin Exam and beyond.

No one got to ponder outcomes, because the memory train stopped for nothing and no one.

The Christmas episodes were absolutely adorable…the walrus guy ruined the image by a lot, especially what Percy did to the man (there would be lots of debate about that in the future, with the sides contesting whether such a fate was deserved after everything the man had done, vs. such a fate being too much), but the overall episode was simply heartwarming, with Percy leaving a little Christmas gift for Persephone and Sally, and giving gifts to all of the other Ghosts.

And then they had all been thrust directly into the situation between Hiyumi and the rapist, and they all wanted to cheer at Yūwaku coming in and literally ripping that disgusting man apart. Yes.

 _Cheer_.

At watching gratuitous _gore_.

Once you watch something enough times, suddenly it doesn't bother you anymore.

The episode with the bullies was lackluster…at first. Compared to the other things they had all seen thus far, watching some civilian girl get bullied by other civilian girls just wasn't cutting it, even if those bullies were filling the other girl's bottom with pebbles and chocolate syrup and then making her hold it all in until she was bursting. Rather creative, admittedly, but hardly gut wrenching.

The revenge twist was a fun thing to watch, however.

There was just something universally agreed upon to be satisfying about watching some bullies get their asses handed to them after tormenting someone. Of course, the whole thing was ruined when Percy came in and killed the girl previously being bullied…but there was something of a pyrrhic victory in the situation with Percy killing the other girl, too.

Right after that one, they saw the strange dynamic of the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist as they delivered a contingent of girls into sexual slavery, which only just barely managed to turn most peoples' stomachs. That episode then led right into the one revolving around the superweapons and that small town, one that Percy nearly sacrificed himself to save, all because he had seen his sister watching the _Justice League_ cartoon, and wanted to please her by being like the superheroes.

It was shocking to the Greeks, though Persephone and Sally swelled with pride.

They also swelled with fury at the reactions of the townspeople immediately thereafter, due to their ungrateful nature and mean words towards the masked shinobi that had just saved them. It was honestly a wonder that Yūrei hadn't killed the lot of them that night.

Following the doomsday scenario, the Greeks saw the revolting episode revolving around the bestiality family, but they weren't all that revolted. Not much, anyway. The only real high note to that little bit was Percy once more doing some good for the world by tracking down and slaughtering the whole of the family, even of that good was offset by him and Yūrei delivering the children in and out of the ring in the first place.

Then they got to see Gatou in action, and what he did to Harumiya, the various tortures he used, and the ultimate culmination of her shitting and so many factors combining to result in hemorrhoids bigger than marbles, and the surgery…that was cringeworthy, if only because it revolved around something that was quote _real_.

Hemorrhoids were something most of the demigods had experienced at one part in their life, and to see them used in such a way…que shudder.

Suffice to say, Gatou was not the most liked character in this deranged carnival.

After Gatou, the Greeks were treated to the back-to-back body horror shows starring Sachiko and Nanako. The whole thing with the former had been horrifying and puke-inducing, if the Greeks had had the time to do so, even after all the shit they'd already seen, and the thing with Nanako was just sad.

Not sad as in pathetic, but sad as in it jerked a tear or two.

Nanako had been so pure, so kind and caring, that to see her eyes just go completely dim as she hydrokinetically ripped away the spines of the attacking Mist shinobi was painful. Of course, very few people in the Greek audience were in the dark about the fact that every water-related thing Percy was doing, Persephone could also do.

Perhaps even stronger, as she was in the older sibling.

Despite all his chakra being mixed in perfectly with his divine powers, Percy was still second-born, and as per divine nature, that did give Persephone more godly authority over the domains she shared with her _little_ brother.

Not that it mattered right now, obviously.

After Nanako, they saw Percy finally have enough of it all, and go end things by himself. If they were being honest, they were happy to finally be getting off this nightmare of a ride, but no. Some divine force (which they would later find out was Susano'o) just _had_ to prolong things for the sake of Continuity. And then they were all just a little pissed off at how Percy was left completely oblivious to it all happening.

Especially Persephone, because that just meant that her brother had to suffer even more.

Then the Greeks saw the episode with the village of Aokigahara, and they felt their toes curl and their opinions sour, and then they became all neutral again after watching the episode with the Hole, and the destruction of that depraved and nightmarish place.

In summary, after watching all these things, the Greeks didn't know what to make of Shin'en anymore. Their first impression of him was that he was a bloodthirsty maniac with way too much power. He was cold, he was cunning, he was uncaring, and he was a badass.

Here, in the civil war, he was young, he was cute, he had a simplistic mind, he was borderline innocent, what with his reactions to most things, and he was a child. He acted like a child, he behaved like a child, and he engaged in childish things, like sitting in Sukina's lap, curling up into her arms, and Yūwaku's arms, for naps and sleep.

Right now, he was just a kid with a couple of swords and a lot of power just going through life one day at a time with no real goals.

Compared to the driven, handsome, cool young man he was currently, this foil was shocking.

Just what happened between now and then that turned Shin'en from this cute little killer into that ruthless murderer?

As for the Greeks themselves, they were changing. Each episode came and went, came and went, leaving no time for processing, coping, or time to understand what they had just seen, what to make of it; they were thrust from one episode to another, not given any time to dwell. This nonstop process had their brains shutting down such programs in order to keep up with current events and not fall behind.

Their brains were also getting…bored, for lack of a better word…with the proceedings. At first, everything they saw had been worthy of screams and horrified visages, but the episodes just kept coming at them…and they got used to it.

Seeing a kid get cut in half, their intestines splashing everywhere? Meh.

Girls being raped by horses? Someone's trying too hard.

Slavery? Boring.

Pedophilia? Old stuff.

Mass slaughter? Urgh, can we get things moving along?

Domestic abuse? Been there, seen that.

Children being butchered like animals? Tragic, moving on.

People being lit ablaze while still alive? Ooh, crispy.

Honestly, some of the Greeks were already desensitized to this stuff anyway, coming from various backgrounds that exposed them to such material, while others came from backgrounds that left their emotional centers more or less toasted, while others yet were unhinged themselves and found this stuff to either be exciting or not exciting enough.

The half-bloods were a rather diverse group, after all, but the singular thought between the demigods and the gods, even the innocent little cinnamon roll that was Persephone, and the other little ones, the demigods twelve and younger, was this:

Can things pick up already? This is getting boring.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _June 2, 1012 A.S._

Shin'en frowned. "An escort mission? Really? Instead of going after some big shot, high-ranking guy to _really_ turn the tide of the war, we're going to meet a boat halfway, escort it in to the Southern Island, and then play errand people to deliver the stuff directly to Mei herself in the Rebel's main camp?"

"Yes," Arashi answered simply.

"This stuff is really that important that _we're_ the ones being told to bring it in?"

"Yes."

"What are we carrying, then?"

"Weapons. I've seen them used before, and if the Rebels can get their hands on them, and use them correctly, their odds go up even higher than what they are now."

"How high are the odds?" Shin'en asked.

"Decently high. We do work for the Rebellion, after all, not that anyone knows it, and so when the time comes, we're going to be there to help end the war."

"Why can't we just move in and do that now?"

"Patience, Shin'en. You need to set up the board before you can execute your strategy."

"Whatever," the demigod huffed. "Let's just get this mystery stuff delivered so we can get this war over with faster."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hours later, approaching midnight, Yūrei, was standing atop the water about five miles off the coast of the Southern Island, the island which was exactly what you thought it was.

It was the southernmost island of the Land of Water.

Arashi had tried to time their arrival to perfectly coincide with when the shipment was supposed to be here at this time, but it turned out the Ghosts were early, based on what Shin'en told them, but the ship was only about ten minutes away, and that was six minutes ago. The tossing waves did nothing for visibility, however, and so the non-mystical members of the black ops squad could not see the ship approaching.

But they did get to see a pod of breaching whales and some playful dolphins, all of them no doubt giving a show for their little lord and savior, Shin'en.

The boat arrived, and imagine the demigod's surprise when he recognized both the boat and the captain of the boat.

"Ahoy, there!" Quint chimed when the Ghosts alit on the deck of the _Orca._ "Considering how long I' been on these waters and not once have you ninja ever just hopped aboard unannounced—not that I' ever known, anyway—I assume you must be those Yūrei folks I keep hearin' about."

"Aye, aye," Arashi said.

"Wonderful! Make yourselves comfortable down below; any food you find you can have; the bathroom's just down the hall, or you can go over the side if you wish, and we should be at port in about twenty minutes. And welcome aboard!"

Arashi stayed on deck while the other got comfortable below.

Shin'en asked Sukina: "Why didn't we just meet Quint on shore?"

"Mei says there's a chance intel leaked to Yagura or other parties about this little voyage, and so she fears that someone could come after the weapons."

"…so why didn't we start escorting Quint from where he left port, instead of waiting for him to get out here? Were these supposed 'someones' only supposed to attack on land or something?"

Sukina frowned under mask. "Just roll with it."

"How do you know this guy, anyway?" Bullock asked. "He never gave us his name."

"Quint was the ferryman Ay had hired almost six years ago to bring him back and forth between Lightning and Water, and he was the same guy that brought me back here almost two years ago."

The three Ghosts nodded their heads, and that was the end of conversation until they reach port, though port was hardly the right word. More like "beaching area." Quint held the _Orca_ offshore due to the ugly rocks, and Yūrei got off, a scroll Sealed away in Shin'en's hands for protection against any potential enemies.

The old fishing boat went puttering back into the night.

"And away we go," Arashi said. "Shin'en, keep focus around us. If anything's coming, tell us about it."

"Roger, roger."

He got four looks.

"Had a dream about Sephy the other night. She was watching this movie, and it was something the people said."

"What kind of people say 'roger, roger'?" Yūwaku asked.

"Robot kinds."

Yūrei decided to drop it and move on.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en's hydrokinetic sensory range extended to three miles, meaning anything within a three-mile radius of him he could feel. Animals, people, locations, things—as long as it had water in it, or water was touching it, he knew about it.

That was why the only way to sneak up on him was to either catch him at a moment of complete unawares—something very difficult given his occupation and experience—or be a waterless being in an area with absolutely zero moisture in the air…and even then, you'd have to get past his other senses of smell and hearing.

Basically, getting the drop on Shin'en was impossible.

The approaching group were not exceptions.

"Hm, interesting," the demigod said.

"What is?" Arashi asked.

"We're being tracked," was the simple answer. "They're moving in formation, too. Five of them. Three females, two males, and one of those girls has a really big pair of scissors for some reason."

The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist all immediately halted on the next branch, and Shin'en nearly slammed into Sukina's ass, but he caught himself before that happened.

"The other two women," Arashi said urgently, "do they have katanas?"

"Yeah…"

Shin'en got the distinct impression that these people were known, but not by him, and there was history between his second family here and whoever it was coming after them.

"I take it we know these guys?"

"Not exactly," Arashi said. "The scissors and the katanas are famed weapons, kind of like second generation Seven Swords. The two men also have their own unique weapons. The people who wield them are much like us, assassins that can fight against Elite Jonin. I don't know them personally, but I know they won't be easy to beat."

"Should we kill them or run for it, then? Because they're getting closer, really fast."

Arashi went speeding away, and the others followed him.

"So we're running?" Shin'en asked incredulously.

"If I had to guess, they're following us to see where the Rebel base is. They're more concerned about then they are about our merchandise. I'd be willing to bet they don't even know we have that on us."

"How did they even find us?" Shin'en asked Arashi.

"They probably didn't. Most likely, we just happened to pass close enough to where they picked us up and started to follow."

"How do they know we're worth following?"

"We're the only people around for a hundred miles. If you happened to pick up five high-speed shinobi, wouldn't you follow too?"

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean that those five high-speed shinobi are going to be headed for the Rebel base, like you said. We could be five high-speed shinobi working for Yagura in secret, and the other guys don't know that, and they're just satisfying their curiosity."

"Regardless, it's best to assume they're coming with hostile intent, and so we need to lose them."

"Or we could split up and take them one by one in locations of our choosing," Shin'en said. "Just a thought."

"I like that thought. Yūrei, scatter!"

And the five shinobi went shooting off in random directions, their pursuers giving chase.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en picked a decent-sized pond in a clearing with thick foliage around. In the dark of the night it was eerie place, with its cool temperature, the inky pit just sitting out there in the middle of nowhere, and the sounds coming from elsewhere in the forest as animals moved and hunted prey echoed distantly over the water.

Never mind the vicious little critters that were in the water itself, not that any of them _dared_ to cross the one they could sense as their lord and master.

Shin'en waited for his pursuer, and he didn't have to wait long. They arrived, but remained hidden in the trees, as opposed to the demigod who was casually sitting cross-legged on the water. The pursuer was a girl perhaps two or three years older than him, putting her in her early teens, and he couldn't see her until she figured out that he knew she was there, and so stepped out of the cover.

She was a strange one, with black hair cut short, sweeping bangs over her nose and touching her eyebrows, and two large tufts poking out from the sides of her head. She had white eyes, just a few shades off from her sclera, and she was wearing a black and red themed sailor girl outfit, with black tights under red shin guards, and over her forearms were red guards customary of a samurai. At her hip was a black-handled katana with a red pommel and guard in a red sheath.

"Judging by that outfit and that mask, I'd say you're either a member of Yūrei, or some wannabe kid that probably needs a diaper at night." The teen drew her sword. "Let's see if I'm right."

She attacked head on, and Shin'en didn't even move. With a bit of willpower, a tendril of water surged up and wrapped around her ankle, and slung her into a tree. Shin'en could've just as easily commanded a sheet of water as thin as paper to go shooting up and cut the girl in half, but he honestly…just did not want to kill her.

He was kind of tired of killing people, really. That tattoo on his arm read over four thousand, anyway.

Maybe he was just out of it right now, but even that didn't make any sense seeing as how he was on a body of water, which made his mind clear as a crystal.

Shin'en just didn't want to kill her, and she didn't get that message as she just kept rushing him, and he just kept tossing her away, and no matter what tactic she tried, she just couldn't get him to move. Essentially, Shin'en was pulling a Gaara, only his control over the water was a lot better than Gaara's control over his sand.

The girl threw kunai, shuriken, explosives, jutsu, tried diversionary strategies—all ending in failure as Shin'en just sat there and exercised his hydrokinesis.

His attention span did have his limits, and those limits were breached soon enough, and so the next time the girl attacked, Shin'en used the water to snap her leg in three places, making her howl in pain. Then he held her suspended before him, upside down.

"Look, I don't want to kill you, so I'm going to let you live…assuming a blood clot doesn't get to your heart…but if you and your guys attack me and my guys again, then I'll kill you, 'kay?"

With that, he just threw her away from him like she was garbage, and vanished in a burst of speed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the beginning of the morning, the Rebels had their new weapons, Yūrei was in and out of the base without being seen, and the other guys were in Yagura's office.

Of the squad that had attacked Yūrei, the only survivor had been the girl to attack Shin'en, and she was only alive because the boy had let her live. The weapons of the squad had all been recovered, as they were all imbued with Sealing jutsu to teleported to a specialized area in the event of their owner's deaths. The new squad, the new owners of the weapons, had all been assigned and summoned by Yagura for a mission assignment.

The Fourth Mizukage addressed them.

"Shirome, Aome, Hasami, Aruk, and Niwa…"

In turn, Shirome was the white-eyed girl that fought Shin'en; Aome was Shirome's older sister, whose outfit was similar, though her hair was longer and her eyes were blue; Hasami was an older girl with purple hair and eyes, wearing a purple gown; Aruk was a pretty boy with a serious face, blonde hair and gold eyes, wearing a white coat with the arms tucked into black bands, and black pants tucked into white boots; and Niwa had dark, messy hair, dark blue eyes, a serious face, and wore a dark blue jacket over a white shirt that was tucked into black pants held up by a belt, the legs of which were tucked into brown boots.

"…you five are the new Kariudo. As of right now, your only mission is to find and kill Yūrei. You have access to whatever you require, and have authority over all in my military besides me. You can use whatever tactics you want, and whatever means you deem necessary. Bodies and collateral are not concerns. Niwa, you're in charge. Now go and bring me the heads of those that call themselves Ghosts."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **So, we got some stuff on the Greeks, and I think it makes sense what they're feeling right now. Once you get on a roller coaster, it's a nonstop thrill ride that leaves no time for processing what's going on, so much as just experiencing what's going on, and if goes on long enough, it gets a little boring. I think, anyway.**_

 _ **I haven't been to Six Flags in a while, but I can remember the Titan getting old about five seconds into the ride.**_

 _ **Now, these new guys, the Kariudo.**_

 _ **In the on-going spirit of**_ **Akame ga Kill** _ **, in which Arashi is based on Bulat, Sukina on Chelsea, Yūwaku on Leone, and Bullock on Lubbock, Aome is based off Akame, Shirome on Kurome, Hasami on Sheele, Aruk on Run, and Niwa on Wave.**_

 _ **And now the etymology:**_

" _ **Ao" is Japanese for blue, and "aka" is for red. Red and blue are opposites.**_

" _ **Shiro" is Japanese for white, and "kuro" for black, which are opposites.**_

" _ **Hasami" is Japanese for scissors, and since Hasami is based on Sheele, who uses a giant pair of scissors, it felt right.**_

" _ **Aruku" is Japanese for the word "walk," which is the opposite of "run," but that ending "u" I feel is unnecessary.**_

" _ **Niwa" is the word for chariot, and in the anime, Wave's Imperial Arms is called Grand Chariot.**_

 _ **Kariudo is one of the words for hunter.**_

 _ **I had a lot of fun coming up with all that.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūrei was gathered in their meeting room due to Arashi's summons. The man looked troubled.

"What's up?" Shin'en asked.

"We've already got our next orders from Mei…"

"…and?" Shin'en prompted.

Arashi inhaled then exhaled.

"She want us to kill the Daimyo of the Land of Water."


	43. The Cult of the End

_The Cult of the End_

 _ **We are now officially in the falling action of the Blood War sub-arc of the main Memory arc. From here, it's high-stakes targets and missions, with a few extra things thrown in because it adds to the word count. I estimate maybe ten chapters before Shin'en kills Yagura, and events between now and then include, but are not limited to:**_

 _ **The Aristocratic Massacre**_

 _ **The killing of four of the Seven Swordsman, as Ameyuri is already dead, and Kisame and Zabuza are canonically alive after the war**_

 _ **Shin'en bringing down a blimp**_

 _ **Sachiko's second emergence**_

 _ **The birth of the rest of the personalities**_

 _ **Stay tuned and bear with me, please. And also get the Reviews up; you people are slacking again.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

' _The master's chambers were as extravagant as you would expect. A king-sized bed occupying the right wall, windows on either side of the bed. The left had a gigantic bookcase that was filled with books, tiny heads, trinkets, and jars of stuff. The wall directly in front of the assassin had a large desk, and behind it was a massive portrait of the target depicting him as a revered warlord on an armored horse with multiple women on their knees, worshipping him._

 _Reminded the assassin of the Water Daimyo's bedroom.'_

 _-_ Excerpt from Chapter 17 of _Backup Plan_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The capital of the Land of Water was not the Hidden Mist Village. There were idiots in the world who thought that was the case, but they were idiots, as was already stated. The capital was in fact located on the same island as the Hidden Mist, only on the complete opposite of the island, with the idea being that it would be harder to get to by invading forces, because they would have to cross the sea, first of all, then they'd have to get past the Hidden Mist, and then they'd have to cross the island, which was a treacherous place of bandits, hostile marshlands, and dangerous wildlife. If you tried to circumvent the main island, there were three other islands around, each with their own forts and defensive weapons.

However, while the capital was in a strategic defensive place, its location did make imports rather difficult…or used to. Modern innovation and higher thinking solved the problem of trade back when the Third Mizukage reigned.

The capital was called Kyoka Suigetsu.

Because back when it was founded, the bay reflected the light of the full moon, and it was pretty.

Nowadays, factories had dumped too much waste into the bay and it was currently a gigantic pool of sludge, not that the government cared. They had far too much on their plates to deal with than worrying about a lot of pollution of their natural resources, such as how much money they could steal from the public that trusted in them to do their appointed jobs, or how many women they could smuggle into the offices for a massive orgy, or how easy their lives were with the civil war going on and keeping the public nice and worried about that instead of the corruption of the officials.

But anyway.

Like all capitals, Kyoka Suigetsu was a hotbed for crime. Prostitution and drug trade was rampant through the city. Gangs vied for territory, and the yakuza did their dealings in the shadows. Orphans scurried about for scraps, the homeless begged on the streets, and the sick died in the gutters, left there for the dogs to eat.

The good people—good being loosely used here—just did their best to keep their heads down and get from day to day without as little fuss as possible, while trying to keep away from the black market as best they could, but desperate times…

If ever there was a rotten city on Earth, Kyoka Suigetsu was it.

Which was why the Cult of the End had such a brilliant standing there.

The Cult sprung up a few years back when six-year-old Shin'en's emotions spiraled out of control at seeing his first family reduced to smoking, greasy bits, and he ravaged the whole country with a single storm. At the suddenness of the storm's appearance, and the political atmosphere about the country with Yagura waging a genocide campaign and crime on the rise, and the sheer devastation brought about by the storm, it all combined nicely to form the soup one individual needed to feed the desperate populace.

Like every classic cult, the Cult of the End was founded upon the ludicrous notion that the demigod had been sent by Izanagi to cleans the world of all sinners, and bring about everlasting peace to mankind by wiping out all of mankind. The leaders of the cult gained power through the usual means, with honey-laden words poured into the ears of a populace desperate for guidance and hope of salvation.

There were some bullshit tenants to the cult, some stupid words that made the members feel righteous and noble, with the chief notion being that they were all going to be punished and sent to Yomi for their sins, but the deeds they performed with their remaining time would guarantee them lenient judgement, and enough good deeds would even get them into the Pure World.

Basically, the Cult of the End were evil Mormons.

The true leaders of the Cult were a council of four men who knew the sham; they were just getting rich off the deeds of their loyal devotees. The leaders under them did not know of the sham, and were well and truly convinced of their ways, that the demigod was going to wipe away all of humanity, and all of them were going to be judged according to their deeds, and those found wanting would suffer, and those found upright would be rewarded.

It wasn't necessarily a bad philosophy, especially because it gave those lost peoples a direction in their lives, steering towards good deeds, but like with all religious institutions, there were those that twisted things around, and suddenly "good deeds" involved the murder of _this_ person, and the theft of _that_ object, because (insert reason here).

Anyway, while Yūrei's sole objection was the killing of the Water Daimyo, all five of them knew that just killing the man would throw the country into more chaos than what there already was. This mission required finesse, planning, maneuvering, and a delicate touch.

Mei knew these things, and she knew that Yūrei knew these things, and she knew that Yūrei knew that she knew these things, which is why she simply said, "Kill the daimyo," instead of "Completely restructure the governing body of the Land of Water so that when I take power as the Fifth Mizukage I'll have feudal support and zero opposition from politicians."

Yūrei knew what was up.

That was why they were Mei's favorite squad.

They were competent.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _June 5, 1012 A.S._

Shin'en had his arms crossed in a pout, his long hair falling over his eyes.

He really needed to get it cut, having not cut it since…he got here almost two years ago.

"Are you telling me that there's an established cult in my name and I'm only just now hearing about it?"

"Yep," Bullock said simply. "Their presence is more or less restricted to Kyoka Suigetsu because they don't have the means to expand, due to their members being civilians unable to cross the terrain, and they don't have the money to get on ships. A lot can happen to stowaways, and they don't risk it. So, they've been stuck here."

"If they're so isolated in Suigetsu, how come you know so much about them?"

Bullock gave Shin'en a flat look. "You've running with us for almost two years now, you should know damn well that we have a network of information that spans the whole country. You tell me how I know so much about your little cult."

Shin'en stuck his tongue out at the green-haired shinobi who had killed his own parents and older brother after all three tried to kill him for not getting along with Yagura's regime.

"You're a butt," Poseidon's son accused.

Bullock raised a brow at the juvenile terminology, and Shin'en flushed slightly.

"Sorry, had a dread of Sephy the other night."

"How is your sister doing?"

That was something Yūrei did; they used questions like that whenever the subject was brought up to distract Shin'en from his reality. It was a tactic used to keep his mental health in line, something to help keep him grounded somewhere beyond a torture chamber or a battlefield or a someone's house as their corpse cooled on the ground.

"She dropped her class into the shark tank at the aquarium."

"Was anyone eaten?"

"No."

"Bummer."

"Yeah. I was really hoping this one sassy black girl would get bit in half. She called Sephy 'ratchet' and said people on food stamps had more dough than she and Mom do…what are food stamps and how do they apply to dough? And what does ratchet mean?"

"Well, dough is another word for money, and food stamps…and ratchet…I've got no idea."

Ratchet, in the urban dictionary, meant trashy, and food stamps didn't exist in the Shinobi World. It sounded like a strange concept, followed by the question of "Why not?" but ask yourself "Why would they?"

Why, in a world of superhuman nightmares with governments headed by uber superhuman nightmares that conducted massive, secret wars against each other, in a world that epitomizes the concepts of the Law of the Jungle, survival of the fittest, and kill or be killed…why would there be governments programs out there that gave away money to people that couldn't support themselves, when so much money had to go to paychecks, bribes, weapons, stock, medicines, etc.

Oh, sure, there were groups and peoples that lobbied for welfare programs, citing that too much money went to the ninja, but in a world where there were no liberals or conservatives or Republicans or Democrats or any real political parties or agendas, such groups seldom held any position, and were regarded as annoyances.

Some richer folk hired shinobi clean house, and no one cared about the bodies.

Ah, the strange irony to the Shinobi World: in exchange for a supreme lack of socio-politics, they were forever marred in civil barbarism.

But anyway.

Bullock and Shin'en were paired together for reconnaissance on the Cult of the End, looking at which angles they could attack from, which buttons they could press, which weaknesses they could exploit, which lambs they could devour. The reason for this was simple: Yūrei was going to put the Cult in charge after their assassination, and they wanted to make sure the people they were going to put in charge could operate effectively.

The Cult was, in all honesty, not that bad. Their message made sense: there's an otherworldly force here on Earth to kill them all, so repent for your sins and start living a life of good so your afterlife will be good and you won't be eternally punished.

The problem was the same problem with all cults: people pulling the strings for their own gain and not for the better of their followers. And the solution was the same solution with all cults: somewhere in the ranks were good people that meant very well and could function as leaders of large groups of people.

However, putting an institution that preached about peace in a world that sought only war was going to be a problem, which was why Arashi, Sukina, Yūwaku and a smattering of Shin'en's Shadow Clones were scattered through the capital, all doing their own reconnaissance on the various groups and gangs that only functioned as a plague upon the populace.

"Yeah," Shin'en said, "after they got everyone out of the tank, that black girl's mom got really mean with Sephy and Mom and I really wanted to kill her. The black people of that world are a lot different than the black people here; they're a lot sassier and do too many hand motions and curse too much. They don't have any discipline."

Bullock shrugged. "From what you've been saying about that world, they don't have any cause for discipline. There's not a structure that pushes and encourages the young to go into the military, and governments are too easily influenced by opinion for the sake of being elected into office, and they pander to whoever screams and complains the loudest, and they don't have enough large-scale war to keep a constant supply of hardened veterans in the public to serve as role models."

Shin'en nodded. "They need more wars, and they need more people to fight in the wars."

"Yes they do," Bullock agreed. "Enough talk, though. Time for work."

"Yep."

And to work they went.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later in the night, approaching the time for the rising of the sun, Yūrei gathered on top of a nondescript rooftop to share their findings, such as who was located where, who the various leaders were, who they could work with for their benefit, and which holes they could exploit.

After all the information was shared, Arashi made a plan on the spot and gave a single order:

"Execute."

The five dashed off in different directions.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _With Yūwaku_

The feline bloodline-user unceremoniously kicked in the doors to the largest prostitution center in Kyoka Suigetsu, right in the middle of primetime. She offered no kind of quip or sassy remark, but instead immediately opted for popping her claws and getting to work on killing everything that breathed air and walked on either two or four legs.

Compared to the civilian guards with their dull katanas—at least, dull as far as Yūwaku was concerned—it wasn't much of a fight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _With Sukina_

The orangette had a similar task to her yellow-haired friend, only she wasn't going after prostitutes. She was going after schoolchildren. Hardly a difference, really, especially when the schoolchildren in question all attended to Kyoka Suigetsu Academy of Excellence, which boasted the highest number of teen pregnancies in the whole of the Land of Water, not that such a fact was a concern to literally anyone.

With the death rate so high nowadays, births were a good thing.

Alas, the death rate was about to get a smidgen higher this night.

Sukina infiltrated the school with practiced ease, easily getting past the security systems and the guards. She made her way to the school's built-in nursery/maternity ward/daycare, where the young mothers could drop their babies off for the day and pick them up later, and others could rest peacefully while they awaited their child's arrival.

It was times like these when Sukina really hated her job, but a mission was a mission.

At least the pay was good.

The shapeshifter proceeded to grant Yūrei's ultimate mercy to the pregnant, the newly born, the unborn, and the little ones.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _With Bullock_

The wire-user's task was just as bloody, but much more noble, as far as many people would consider. His job was to go to the local jail, which was currently housing a handful of street thugs that would soon be released due to lack of evidence for any kind of trial. Bullock got to the jail and proceeded to slaughter the staff, a bunch of questionable policemen and women, and the jailbirds.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _With Arashi_

The leader of the black ops squad known by many names had what was arguably the easiest job, and that was simply watching over Shin'en as the little one did his own designated job, which was a two-parter:

Kill the true leaders of the Cult of the End, and

Establish himself as the demigod, and lead his loyal followers to taking over the Water Capital in the wake of a massive riot.

Killing the puppet masters was an easy job, as the four men believed themselves untouchable with all their money. Such a thought might have proven true in a perfect world, but in this world where an eleven-year-old boy had supernatural powers, that thought was folly.

Shin'en simply applied his hydrokinesis when in range, and killed four men in their sleep via quick heart attack. And so, despite their many crimes, these four men died peacefully in their sleep.

That was the easy part; now came the hard part…though hard was a matter of perspective.

Shin'en thought this was going to be easy.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

And it was; giving out some secret facts about people (from information gathered by Yūrei), manipulating some water without use of chakra, and delivering multiple rousing speeches, all combined with the cult's base desperation to be right and have their faith rewarded, totaled out to be complete enthrallment and loyal devotion.

Then came the culmination of the operation: in a few hours, riots broke out across the city as Yūrei's many works were found and mass panic ensued. In the chaos, Arashi, Sukina, Bullock, and Yūwaku all killed every member of every underground organization they had been shadowing, effectively eliminating over three-fourths of Kyoka Suigetsu's main problems.

Meanwhile, Shin'en lead an invasion of the Daimyo's palace, an invasion comprised of little more than five hundred panicked individuals, excited looters, crazy people, and dozens of devout followers all strongly believing they were dying for a righteous cause.

Which, in a way, they were. After all, this whole operation was being carried out to establish a new Water Daimyo, one that would work with Mei in the future to lead the Land of Water into an era of reconstruction and harmony.

The samurai hardly put up a fight, as most of them really hated the current daimyo and the people they worked for. In an honorless world, the samurai—the _real_ samurai, anyway—tried very hard to maintain their honor, and there was nothing more dishonorable than willingly let an obese slob bring in women by the dozen to satisfy himself and his retainers, occupying his time with revelry while country internal war.

Hell, some samurai even pitched in to help slaughter the retainers.

The daimyo, however, was Shin'en's.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The man's room was certainly a lavish dwelling, with a massive bed, high ceiling, magnificent chandelier, a well maintained carpet, expensive furniture, and all the comforts of the rich. There was also this really big painting mounted on the wall behind a very opulent desk that would probably go for several hundred thousand to the average collector, or a few million to the right person.

Shin'en Sealed it up for later and made a couple of Water Clones to go about and loot the palace. Even with so many people currently occupying it, the palace was still a large place with many hidden rooms and secret places, and while his Clones didn't have his divine powers, they still had trained senses and were keen on noticing things that were out of place.

But, while acquiring money was certainly a goal, killing the daimyo was the main idea, and so that needed to be carried out. Unlike his Clones, Shin'en did have his divine powers, but even without them he would've noticed the secret passageway hidden among the books.

Besides, the stench of the daimyo was heavy in the air.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as the riots broke out, the daimyo had already hidden himself away, and was currently using a secret passage built into his bedchambers to escape to an underground river where a simple rowboat was waiting for him to board at the drop of a hat, a simple rowboat that would take him downstream to a hidden location where he could await pickup from outside help.

The man was not alone as he hurried through the passage with only a flashlight to illuminate the way: he had brought a decent-sized suitcase with him that was stuffed to the point of bursting with documents and cash.

The daimyo made his way down to the cavern and hurried for the rowboat. A black-clad midget blurred into his path, wearing a grinning white mask, and the daimyo put on his break and spun around with a scream.

His escape was futile, and he most certainly died when his legs and head were cut off.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Remember," Shin'en said to the priest of the Cult of the End that was now officially the Daimyo of the Land of Water, "the day is coming that I will wipe clean all peoples of the Earth, and all of them will be judged by the gods according to their works. Teach all that will listen that good thoughts, good words, and good deeds are the way to paradise, and pray for mercy for those that will not listen, for their punishment is sure."

"Yes, Lord," the priest said.

"Remember," Shin'en said, "that you are not to force anyone to our way of thinking, for the gods have given us the power to choose, but if we choose righteousness, will be rewarded, and if we choose wickedness, we will be punished."

The priest's brows furrowed. "But…if our goal is lead all to paradise, and we should pray for those wayward few, should we not force everyone to our way of thinking so that they would be spared eternal damnation?"

"No, for each man must reap what he sows. If he listens and plants good seed, and tends to it daily, then he will enjoy a bountiful harvest, but if he does not listen and plants bad seed and does not tend to it, then he will starve."

"Then shouldn't we help him with his fields if he does not listen, instead of letting him starve?"

"Yes."

The priest still looked confused, so Shin'en tried to put it into less wise words.

"Look, just be a good person and get everyone else to be a good person, 'kay?"

"Yes, Lord," the priest bowed.

When he straightened, Shin'en was gone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"All hail the Messiah!" Yūwaku proclaimed.

Arashi, Sukina, and Bullock saluted with their right arms held straight and at an angle. "Hail!"

Shin'en flushed under his mask. "You guys are jerks."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Meanwhile, in the Hidden Mist_

Word didn't necessarily travel very far from Kyoka Suigetsu, so all information that Yagura gleaned from the place came from a simple network of messengers, and the latest intelligence report had him very confused.

' _The Water Daimyo has been assassinated. Various local criminal organizations have been destroyed. Various local peoples are dead. The Water Daimyo has been replaced with the leader of the Cult of the End.'_

From previous reports, Yagura knew the Cult to be bunch of borderline nuts that had sprung up after the super storm almost six years, preaching the message of "The time is nigh. Repent for your sins or suffer the consequences. Good thoughts, good words, and good deeds get you to paradise."

More or less anyway.

The Cult didn't have any real standing anywhere but in the capital, and Yagura had written them off, but now they were in one of the most powerful seats in the known world, and technically, for all intents and purposes, his boss.

The relationship between the Kage of his village and the Daimyo of the land that village was built on was more superficial than anything, because the Daimyo's knew quite well that a Kage could waltz in through the doors and slaughter the whole populace, or a good enough shinobi could pop in sometime during the night and kill them, so Daimyo's typically avoided getting on the bad side of a Kage.

However, the Daimyo's office was the one that declared war, negotiated trade with other countries, provided funding, and owned the whole of land of where they ruled, including anything built on it. So, for all intents and purposes, any Daimyo could literally sell their Hidden Village to another Daimyo.

But no one was that stupid, and no shinobi would ever stand for something so insane, and no amount of samurai, short of an army 100,000 strong, was going to bring the likes of a pissed off Hidden Village to heel.

But anyway.

Yagura hadn't ever had any respect for the Daimyo's office anyway, and he was not about to let some religious man tell him what to do, even if that man supposedly was all about peace and love and friendship. So, the Fourth Mizukage was more than happy to let the new Daimyo do his thing—he'd probably be assassinated within the week, anyway—but if he got word that the Daimyo was supporting the Rebels, or harboring bloodline users…

…he'd let the Three-Tails go on a rampage.

…

Yagura had a thought suddenly cross his mind. "ANBU, bring me Kisame."

Moments later, the Monster of the Bloody Mist was kneeling respectfully before his Kage. "I am at your disposal."

"Go to Kyoka Suigetsu and provide protection for the new Daimyo. Send me frequent reports and make sure the man knows to stay out of way, and that he does not control me. You are free to kill him, but only if you have an _actual_ reason to, and when I say _actual_ , I mean _my_ version of actual, got it?"

"Yes, sir," Kisame answered sheepishly.

"Good. Now go forth and make sure this new lord of our land knows who the real lord is."

Kisame vanished, and Yagura's mood instantly soured, because now he had to get back to the never ending battle with his most frequently recurring foe:

 _Paperwork._

How does a dictator in charge of a massive military establishment even get paperwork, anyway?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Right, I'm going offline for…longer than I usually have been. Hey, taking two courses that are supposed to be sixteen weeks crunched down to eight creates a lot of work for a guy.**_

 _ **Anyway, there's a scientific paper due on March 17, 2019—for those reading in the future—so I'll be using the next few days to write that out, and then it's on to exposition because frankly, even**_ _ **I'm**_ _ **getting bored with the Blood War, which is really bad because I was so very much looking forward to writing it, and now it's become something of a hassle.**_

 _ **Maybe I'm overworking myself by trying to finish all my homework and still have writing time all in a single day just to please you guys?**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yūrei gathered for their ritual, and Sukina was visibly deflated. She did have the hardest job out of all, having to kill so many pregnant girls, so many babies and toddlers just to stir up enough chaos that they could seamlessly replace the most powerful figure in the Land of Water.

"To the dead," Arashi toasted.

"And the to next man to die," chorused the others.

That night, Sukina had mild nightmares, but those nightmares were burned away when Shin'en crawled into her bed and snuggled into her embrace, and she was very grateful.


	44. An Excerpt from a Different Life

_An Excerpt from a Different Life_

 _ **I want to thank a Guest Reviewer for the idea of writing something of a break chapter.**_

 _ **I also come bearing bad news:**_ **Assassin's Creed: Odyssey** _ **had come out with a new patch, which includes a higher level cap, more Mercenary Tiers, and New Game+, and so I will be grinding the Hades out of my game and probably won't be back here for some time, because on top of gaming, I also have school.**_

 _ **However, Spring Break for me is through the 11**_ _ **th**_ _ **of March to the 15**_ _ **th**_ _ **of 2019, which is next week, as of the 1**_ _ **st**_ _ **, which is when I first started on this chapter, and you can bet your asses there'll be some updates then.**_

 _ **Anyway, on to the filler chapter:**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Percy Jackson…or the Omen

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _In a world in which the twins were not separated…_

"Persephone," Sally chastised, "don't drink so much!"

Seriously, the eight-year-old was on her third Coke, and the closest bathroom was over a mile away.

However, Sally could hardly blame her daughter for enjoying the rare delicacy that was a carbonated soda. In their apartment, the only thing Sally ever had to drink was water, milk, and little packages of flavored powder to put in the water to give it a little pizzazz. That was the usual in the apartment, either a glass of fruit punch from a gallon and a half jug, or some milk.

Cokes were just too expensive to get from the store.

"Don't worry, Momma," Persephone said. "I'll be fine."

Percy didn't say anything—he hardly said anything, because his big sister said enough for the both of them—he just calmly sipped from the can of Coke that had taken for himself.

Sally's mouth set into a thin line, but she wasn't about to be Hard Mom in this setting.

She had finally caught a break. She got a book finished and found a publisher that was willing to publish it for very reasonable conditions, and she had been invited to this: the publisher's annual cook out on the frozen river.

The publisher was a kindly man who had made a small fortune, retired early, and started his publishing business. Everyone loved the man…except his high-maintenance wife, who only loved his money and spoiled their son rotten. For the life of Sally, and everyone who knew the publisher, they couldn't fathom why he would take such a bitch for a wife.

Regardless—regardless of any bitches, regardless of any cold temperatures and frozen-over water and snow on the ground, and little girls drinking too much caffeine, Sally was determined to make this a good day, for things were finally looking up in life.

After all the struggle and strife and having to raise a set of twins and retail work and the slob that was Gabe, it was all paying out.

"Sally!" a voice called. She turned and saw the publisher approaching on a set of ice skates. With deft skill, he slid to a stop right next to her, and she had to flush. "It's good to see you here today! And I take these little ones are your children, Percy and Persephone?"

" _I'm_ Persephone, and _this_ is Percy," Poseidon's daughter corrected.

"My goodness, they look so much alike I didn't know," the publisher said genuine astonishment.

Sally laughed nervously. It was irrational of her, but she just couldn't help feel like she was on thin ice right now, and it had nothing to do with boys and men out there on the ice playing hockey. Sally just felt like any kind of slip up on her part, any kind of discrepancy, would result in the complete and total collapse of this good fortune.

"Y-Yep, that's my babies…"

"Momma~," Persephone whined, "we're not babies anymore!"

"Of course not," the publisher said, and he got down on a knee. "You and your brother are big kids, and are going to become terrific adults one day thanks to your wonderful mother."

Sally flushed again.

"And, with your mother's permission, I'd like to give the two of you… _these_." The publisher produced a couple of king-sized Hershey's bars.

Where Persephone's eyes went wide and she let out a loud gasp and literally started to bounce, Percy's pupils simply dilated a little bit…and then his eyes flicked to elsewhere as he sensed danger.

A sharp, cross voice called out the publisher's name, and he bolted erect with a quick, "Yes, dear?"

It was the wife. And she was not happy.

She approached and gave Sally a scathing look, and then turned a sweet smile to her husband. "It's nice to you associating with _all_ your guests today, _dear_ , but there are some people I want to introduce you to that you _should_ be talking to."

To Persephone, she just picked up bad vibes. To Percy, he knew this woman was attacking him, his sister, and his mother. To Sally, this woman was just that kind of bitch in life that inevitably encountered. However, this particular bitch held a lot of sway and pull over certain things.

"Right. Of course," the publisher said mechanically. "It was nice to see you, Sally. Percy, Persephone," he nodded at the wrong twin in turn, and was dragged away by his wife.

Persephone frowned. "I don't like her. She seems like a butt."

Sally nodded. "She is a butt."

"Were you going to let us have the candy, Momma?"

"Yes, I was."

"Why do people keep getting me and Percy confused?"

Sally looked down at her twins, and it was only her mother's intuition that granted her the ability to discern which kid was which.

See, there was a recurring problem with the twins, and it stemmed from nowhere besides the innocence of children. Neither one had been able to grasp the higher concepts of what the ever hypocritical, convoluted, shifting, changing, undecisive society deemed appropriate for what a boy should wear, and what a girl should wear, and that meant that whenever Sally took the twins shopping for clothes because they needed new ones, she always had to fight against the two-pronged assault of Percy gravitating to whatever his sister wanted to wear, and his sister over the moon about it.

However, Sally was not about to go to court over parenting abilities because she let her son wear a Disney princess t-shirt, and so she had to put her foot down with her children, and…come to a compromise that Percy could wear the same princess pajamas his sister did. Long story short, Percy was not an assertive boy, and only ever liked anything or did anything solely because his sister did so.

So, when it came to day clothes, Sally had succeeded in getting her daughter to gravitate towards unisex clothing, which by proxy meant that Percy also gravitated towards unisex clothing, because he was a copycat.

 _That_ was why the twins always got confused for the other, because when wearing clothes that didn't have any distinctive gender identifiers, they looked exactly the same. Especially when it was literally freezing outside and they head toboggans on to keep their little heads and ears warm.

"It's because the two of you are too cute," Sally said.

And that was when the snag hit.

Typically, after a line like that, the parent would tell their children to go play with the other children because they had seen some people they knew and wanted to go engage in conversation without having the little ones glued to their hips. The problem was that Sally didn't know a soul here, as dropping out of high school, moving away, joining the workforce, and raising twins didn't leave time for socializing.

However, that was the point of this gathering: meet fellow authors and exchange ideas and phone numbers.

Sally saw a group of fellow adults and delivered the lines. Her twins went scampering away to go find something to entertain themselves with, and she went to go and socialize.

In the shadows of the trees on the opposite bank, a dark skinned man with black wings watched with blank eyes, for there were souls to collect here.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Persephone quickly discovered the folly of drinking so much soda, because now she really had to pee. However, she knew there wasn't a potty anywhere close, and that it was too cold to just drop her pants and undies and go behind a tree, so she buckled down and clenched, determined to hold it for as long as possible.

Leading her devoted little brother, she found a group of kids and asked to allowed to play.

"Sure," the head boy said, "we needed two more anyway."

Persephone beamed, happy to be accepted, but Percy's face remained blank, though his eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

The twins followed the kids into the white-laden forest, away from the eyes of the adults, and the head boy laid out the game to be played.

"Okay. You two have to go and hide, and the rest of us are going to find you. You have till we count to thirty. Ready? Go!"

Persephone grabbed her brother's arm and took him away with her while the other kids gathered in a huddle to count. Percy felt that something was very off about this situation, and he would later be proven right. They found a hiding place, and then so much time passed, and Persephone started to get scared due to the absence of anyone besides her brother.

Where was Momma?

Where were the kids?

And so she decided to play reverse hide and seek, and followed her tracks in the snow back to where this whole thing started, Percy right behind her, his eyes roaming around with intensity.

Truthfully, he was smarter than his sister, and he knew it. Given her assertive nature, he always let her take over and be in the spotlight, while he hovered back. He saw things in the back, got to see the little twitches and ticks people did when they had something in their heads, and he knew that whatever was about to happen was not going to be good.

And he was right, because when he and Persephone got to where the huddle of kids used to be a slew of hideous monsters jumped out at them from all sides, all hollering. Percy jumped in surprise and prepared to fight, where his sister shrieked and fell to her butt.

Then the monsters took off their masks to reveal that they were still monsters, only that they had the same faces as the kids who had let the twins join the game. The boys and girls all laughed maliciously at their prank, and that laughter got even louder and even meaner when someone pointed out what Persephone was doing.

"Ew! She's peeing!"

Indeed, the snow around Percy's big sister was steadily discoloring as her full bladder gave way in the wake of the impact that came with falling. Tears burned in Persephone's at the humiliation, and Percy's fury boiled.

That was the thing about the boy: he stood back and observed, being quiet and seemingly unsupportive of his sister, but that was only half the case. In truth, the fierceness with which he protected, coveted, and _loved_ his sister was nothing short of murderous.

And seeing his sister like this, humiliated, crying, vulnerable, being laughed at, _infuriated him_.

And the world responded.

Snow literally steamed around him as the heat of his anger melted it. He clenched his fists and the unmelted snow started to writhe and turn, and the laughter started to die out. Lips curling back into a snarl, Percy grunted and thrust his gloved hands forward, ignoring the big tug in his tummy as a wave of snow thundered forward to bury the little children.

They all screamed as they tried to get free, but there was too much weight on them for their little bodies to overcome.

That was when the adults showed up, having started a search party long ago when someone noticed the number of absent children, and having been drawn to this location by Persephone's earlier shriek and the screaming of those in the snow.

Sally swooped him and scooped up her children in her arms, wholly ignoring Persephone's wet pants. The other adults worked quickly to unbury their own offspring, and that was when the lies started to come blubbering out upon asked how this situation came about. Through the stutters and the tears, a conclusion was drawn:

It was all the twins' fault.

That left Sally to stand there alone to face the angry looks of over a dozen adults. Coincidentally, the boy that had started this whole thing was the spoiled son of the publisher and his wife, and the woman threw her weight around.

"I told you this woman was trouble," she said icily. "I told you she was the mother of those delinquent twins that keep getting into mischief no matter where they go, and now look: our son was nearly crushed to death in snow! If we hadn't gotten here in time, his chest might've caved in!"

Take special note of how it was only _her's_ that she was worried about, not the other kids.

Logically thinking, there was no way the likes of Percy, even with Persephone's help, could've devised some plan to put all these children in snow like that, but these were rich people who had raised perfect children that pulled only the highest grades in only the most prestigious private schools; when it came to the poor, logic escaped them.

"I want you to revoke this woman's contract immediately."

Sally's heart stopped, and then shattered entirely when the publisher stepped forward and said quietly, "Your contract is terminated."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Trying to keep the tears from leaking because they might freeze to her face, Sally finished buckling Percy into his car seat.

"I'm sorry, Momma," he said.

It was all she had to not break down then and there, because he was so earnest and sincere, and yet wasn't at all at fault. Sally caressed his cheek with the back of her hand.

"Let's get home and get some hot chocolate, 'kay?"

Percy smiled and nodded.

Persephone was over in her car seat, napping. She was exhausted after her previous episode.

Sally shut the door of the minivan and went walking around the back. She was intercepted by the publisher.

"O-Oh, hello, sir."

He smiled tiredly. "My wife is certainly a person, is she not?"

"Something like that."

"Yes, she's spoiled our son rotten and believes anything he says. I, on the other hand….My wife, despite how much control she has, does not dictate how I operate my publishing business."

Sally's body language visibly shifted and her eyes widened as her heart skipped a few beats.

"I think your book is going to do wonderfully, Ms. Jackson. Oh, and give these to your kiddos, if that's alright."

Sally accepted the candy bars, and nearly wept.

The publisher smiled and left back down the way from the parking lot to where the frozen rive was.

Now elated, Sally got in the driver's seat, put the van in drive, and went away with a very happy smile.

However, Percy had seen none of this transpire, and for all his intuition, he did not know that mother was happy now, as he could not see her face. Next to him, his sister's eyes cracked open and met his. Through her eyes, she gave him a command, and he followed it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back at the cookout, where the rive was frozen over, there were cones set up that marked the places where the ice was thin, and could easily collapse. Under the layer of ice, the rive still flowed, the current still looking for anything to pull into the white land beyond the cones.

On the thick ice, the boys and the men played hockey, while the girls and the women watched. On a set of dead branches overlooking the whole scene was a raven, one with eyes green as the sea. The raven's head turned, it eyes reflecting the visage of a certain spoiled little boy.

Skating on the ice, the boy suddenly lost control and went sailing past the boundary cones. The ice caved under him, and the screaming started and he was pulled under by the current. Everyone on the ice got on their hands and knees and started scraping away snow to try and find the drowning boy, and one got lucky and called out, and everyone gathered to bare witness to the horrible sight of the spoiled little boy being dragged along just under the clear sheet of ice.

He banged against the barrier, and those topside banged against the barrier, all desperate to save the boy.

The publisher slid onto the scene, equipped with an axe. He raised it high and brought it down with force. His son might have been a spoiled little shit, but he was still his son. The axe blade struck the ice and the sheet collapsed. The publisher went under before he could be grabbed, and the current dragged both him and son away under a section covered by snow.

Panic ensued as everyone spread out to start digging away to try and find them.

On the bank, the wife had donned a pair skates, but hadn't finished tying them when a breakthrough occurred: there, on a bit of tree that was sticking out of the water, her husband carrying her son emerged with a gasp, and she went skating away with terrific speed. But with her skates untied, she was not secured.

In her haste, her foot caught on the ice and she went flying out of her skates, and she went sliding very fast across the near-frictionless surface of frozen water. Men and boys scrambled out of her way so as to not get hit by her, and some still got caught and they went sliding away due to the transferred momentum.

Screaming bloody murder at her total lack of control, the wife slammed into her husband and son, and they all vanished under the ice sheet. Those that had been knocked over went sliding into the thin area, and they vanished as well.

The ice destabilized from all the breaking, and started to come undone.

Chaos descended upon this tiny little section of the world as human nature reared it ugly head. In desperate bids of survival, those on the ice threw those in their way behind them to get caught in the waters, but the ice was breaking too fast and the current too powerful, and all that weren't immediately close to either bank fell below.

The water made contact with the freezing air, and the river quickly refroze, trapping over fifty people beneath its frigid surface.

Fifty people that all drowned, leaving behind dozens of crying widows.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Percy's eyes opened, and he reached over and clasped hands with his sister over the distance of their car seats.

He couldn't wait for that hot chocolate.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **If you remember, when Shin'en was brought to the door in the Dimensional Hall that represented the DI-verse, he noticed a door labeled**_ **Backup Plan: Unseparated** _ **.**_

 _ **This was one episode from that story.**_

 _ **Something of a preview of what the twins' lives would be like if the Fates had left them alone.**_

 _ **Like I said: I'll be gone for a while as I grind on**_ **AC:OD**

 _ **I also want to point out how this chapter only took me two hours to write.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	45. The Aristocratic Massacre

_The Aristocratic Massacre_

 _ **Relax. I saw the Reviews about last chapter, and relax. Shin'en is going to fight Yagura and kill him, that's guaranteed. It's coming, without fail. If I so wanted, I could gloss over the whole of the rest of the Blood War, literally skipping over everything, and get right to that point, but I don't want to.**_

 _ **There are scenes I want to write because I've been dying to write them for years. Yes,**_ _ **years**_ _ **. I've had fantasies about things that happened in the Blood War since before I even started writing**_ **Backup Plan** _ **in 2015.**_

 _ **Most of those fantasies won't ever get to see the light of day due to impatience and mounting boredom, but anyway.**_

 _ **The Blood War continues with a few more chapters, and then it'll be over. I'll move onto some other memories that Shin'en's soul splintered into, and after that, this story will end with him going back to the Shinobi World to kickstart Shippuden.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _July 28, 1012 A.S._

Things had certainly picked up. The Rebels with their new weapons from a few months back had taken the battles to the frontlines, striking several targets and escalating the war from guerilla skirmishes to full-on conflict over land and position and resources.

Yūrei had been called in by Mei several times in the past six weeks to perform mop-up duty on battles lost or battles that she was losing, and it had an affect on Shin'en. All the battles and the blood and the endless pleas for mercy all weighed on his psyche, and as per Arashi's usual tactic, he had the boy construct a new personality to dump all the weight onto.

Thus, the blood-lusting personality that was Shin was created, and Shin'en's fatal flaw of bloodlust was established.

On the current morning, July 28, the demigod woke up and joined his family at the table for breakfast, and he was very moody.

"Had a dream of your sister last night?" Yūwaku asked.

Shin'en huffed grumpily. "Adults are dumb."

Arashi, an adult, nodded strongly. "Yes, very idiotic they are."

It went right over Shin'en's head as he recounted his dream.

"The stupid teacher does thing called popcorn reading, where she makes one kid read a certain amount out of a book before picking someone else, and Sephy has dyslexia and so can't read good and every time the teacher calls on her she stutters and looks stupid and she gets made fun of for it. At recess, she was playing by herself and some bullies came and picked on her because of her reading, and so she went to the teacher because that's what you're supposed to do in that stupid world, but the teacher didn't do anything besides shrug because none of the teachers like Sephy because she has ADHD and can't be still too long, and so the bullies kept coming after her and she kept going to other adults and none of them did anything, so Sephy beat all the bullies up and got expelled from the school and then sued, and the judge said she has to go to anger management counseling twice a week and Mom has to pay for all of it."

Shin'en breathed.

Notice the lack of punctuation in the above dialogue, primarily the lack of commas. That's not errors in grammar, that's Shin'en talking too fast, just like a child. Another of Yūrei's accomplishments in his psychological programming.

The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist processed everything they heard, and none of them felt any kind of movement in them at Persephone and Sally's plight. They did find the education structure and the justice system to be highly flawed, but they were comparing it to their own education and justice systems, in which a kid beating up a bunch of other kids would be given a cookie and justice came in the form of hiring a shinobi to kill someone for you.

It was a barbaric system and it worked perfectly.

"That's rough, kiddo," Sukina said. "But you've been slaughtering adults en masse, stealing hundreds of million of ryō, and pulling of feats and accomplishments few Kage can claim to have done. If your big sister is even half of that, she'll be just fine."

Shin'en's mood improved visibly, but he was still sulky.

"I just sometimes wish there was more I could do for her and Mom than just complain about them to you guys."

"Hey, complaining about them is good," Bullock said, slurping a whole bull worm down his throat. "It means that you care."

Shin'en shrugged, then looked at Arashi. "Do we have a mission today?"

"Why? Did you have something you wanted to do?" Arashi asked with a raised brow, both genuinely curious and a little miffed.

They _always_ had a mission, unless he said otherwise.

"No, just thought I'd ask."

"Well, since you just asked, yes, we do have a mission today. The biggest family in the Land of Water—after the daimyo's court—is throwing a great big party in two nights, as a means of taking the aristocrats' minds of the turmoil of the war for a few hours. All the big families and some of the wealthier lower families are expected to attend, meaning there's going to be a lot of money and a lot of security there."

"Are we going to rob the whole thing?" Shin'en asked.

"Nope."

"Are we going to rob their homes while their away?"

"Nope."

"…are we going to kill everyone there, wiping away the aristocrats and politicians of the current age, further clearing the way for Mei to take power without any snags that might arise from the wealthy and powerful?"

Arashi's eyes gleamed. "Bingo."

"Am I going to have to make some other personality for this?"

"It might help, yeah."

"I'm going to be a boy this time," Shin'en said with strict finality, and he glowered at Arashi and Yūwaku. "I'm still not happy with you two."

"For what?" the blonde asked innocently.

Shin'en nearly went flying over the table. "FOR PUTTING A STRIPPER IN MY HEAD!"

Yūwaku fell out of her chair in laughter, while Arashi just crossed his arms. "And? I'm sure she'll be very informative when the time comes."

" _How helpful is a stripper going to be?"_ Shin'en hissed.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll find out in a year or two," Arashi waved off.

The demigod blinked, and then it dawned on him. His face flushed, and the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist laughed at his expense.

"With all I've seen," Shin'en muttered, "I don't think I'll be able to…"

Sukina leaned over to kiss his forehead. "That's what I thought, but I managed. Now finish eating and go get dressed."

Shin'en inhaled the rest of his breakfast and headed for his room, but he didn't get around the corner before Yūwaku called at him.

"And make sure you go potty!"

The blonde was on the receiving end of a withering glare, which only made her laugh more.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _July 30, 1012 A.S._

"What a night," Shin'en commented.

The host family enjoyed a massive property with a grand mansion and no less than five hundred acres of land, with three separate ponds and a ring of forest. A high brick wall lined the road in front of the property, and the huge iron fence was open to allow in all the fancy carriages. It was a moderate temperature for the night, in that twilight stage of almost warm and a little cool.

Enough for the likes of a jacket to be comfortable, or okay for short sleeves and pants.

It was a cloudless night, and the Milky Way shined brightly in the unpolluted skies of the Land of Water.

"Indeed it is," Arashi agreed. "All of you know your assignments, and all of you know the backup plans. Now, with finesse, please. I'd rather keep this as clean as possible."

With four nods of assent, the Ghosts vanished into the night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yes, they could've very easily just as waltzed in and slaughtered the masses. The hired samurai and the few hired ninja hiding in the shadows might've put up something of a fight, but Yūrei was far too skilled and powerful for the likes of C and B-class fighters.

Were they all about to go one on one with Kages? No.

Shin'en could, and Arashi probably could, and with _enough planning_ Sukina, Bullock, and Yūwaku could as well, but even Arashi would struggle against one of the Five Shadows. Shin'en had his cheating trick of hydrokinesis, but he didn't like to use that as he felt it unfair, but he still had more than enough raw juice to fight against any Kage, and any equivalent level fighter.

But, at the end of the day, Yūrei was a stealth-oriented black ops squad that did things under the cover of darkness, and did it quietly.

Shin'en alit quietly upon the roof of the mansion. There were a few patrolmen, but he hid himself away from their paths and eyes. He buzzed into the mask's comm system, letting everyone know he in position for overwatch.

The upper levels of the mansion were off limits to the guests, with guards posted at the stairways up to deter any snoopers. That didn't stop Yūwaku from flaunting her assets to distract one poor fool that followed her to a restroom where Sukina was waiting.

Yūwaku left the restroom shortly after, and the guard behind her headed up the stairs.

Meanwhile, Lubbock performed his part of the mission. See, the host family had this grand spring in the middle of the main hall, with smaller springs throughout their home, all of them hooked up to a plumbing system that was carrying fine wine through the pipes to go spewing—in a controlled manner, of course—out from little nozzles into small pools that guests could dip their cups into and get a glass full of happy juice.

With directions from Shin'en, using his hydrokinesis to pick out paths and passages based on the movement of moisture in the air, Lubbock infiltrated a subterranean area, no doubt a secret escape route in the case of trouble, and followed it all the way until it reached the main house, where the bowels of the mansion were at. Down there was a battalion of workers going at it hard to keep everything upstairs running smoothly, including a great big vat they were dumping wine into to get pumped to the springs above.

There were no samurai or hidden ninja down here, and it was quite easy for Bullock to drop a few tablets into the vat unseen.

Back upstairs, Arashi Sealed away the bodies of three ninja that had caught on to Sukina's ruse, and the woman herself finished hypnotizing to host and his wife.

Yes, in this world of genjutsu, and Sharingan, and what basically amounted to magic, there were still old ways of hypnotizing people that didn't involve chakra, and those ways were one of Yūrei's favorites. It wasn't often seen because it wasn't often needed, and the mission tonight could've gone on without it, but Arashi wanted to make sure there wasn't any rust to their practice.

Sukina and her boss agreed her skills were still sharp as ever.

On the roof, Shin'en continued to monitor and give updates as they came.

Back in the main hall, Bullock and Yūwaku had taken to pickpocketing what valuables the rich and wealthy had brought with them, instantly replacing what they stole with napkins that had been Transformed to look like the real jewelry.

While the main objective was mass extermination, that didn't mean that Yūrei was going to walk away from this without a few million extra ryō in their pockets.

Arashi and Sukina made their way back down and melded with the crowds, both of them in finery, just like Bullock and Yūwaku were. Shin'en was up on the roof, still providing overwatch.

The hosts took the center stage and gave a rousing speech about perseverance, joy, happiness, and about how this was a night of merriment and that everyone should enjoy themselves, and they closed their words with thanks, and invitation to have more wine and snacks.

The people cheered and clapped, and went back to their drinking.

Yūrei entered the next phase.

By now, the chemical Bullock had dropped into the wine had mixed in and was now in the supply being currently being drunk by the masses. It was a waiting game now, waiting for digestion to happen and the chemical to enter the bloodstream. Meanwhile, the atmosphere had to be set just right for the show to take place.

Shin'en started pulling the moisture from the air, making the party dry like a desert, which prompted more drinking of the cool wine to alleviate the sudden heat. Meanwhile, the other four were at the different thermo control systems throughout the mansion, and were turning off the air conditioning systems and upping the heat, only, with Shin'en's hydrokinetic powers pulling out the moisture, the heat was a dry heat, and sweats were starting to break out everywhere as the patrons' bodies worked to keep cool.

The calculated time was nearing, and so the four Ghosts vacated the area to join their little one in the shadows on the roof. And then the time came…and then the time went. And it kept on going.

Arashi checked the watch on his mask's HUD, and then looked at Bullock.

"Hey, I put the tablets in. You can check my feed."

Then Arashi looked at Yūwaku, who crossed her arms. " _You_ checked my math on the tablets' dissolving time, mixing time, incubation time, and activation time. _You_ said it was all good."

Then Arashi looked down at Shin'en, who put his hands on his hips. "It is over ninety degrees in there. Something went wrong."

Arashi looked back at Bullock. "Which tablets did you grab, exactly?"

"The blue ones."

The leader's shoulders slumped. "You were supposed to grab the _green_ ones."

Silence hung in the air for a little bit as Bullock flushed a little under his mask.

"U-Uh, oops?"

Arashi, with his years of experience, had learned that going into a boiling fury would not help anything. "Alright," he said simply, instantly moving on from this debacle, "Plan B."

He looked at Shin'en, who nodded. "Got it ready."

"Good. Set 'em off."

Shin'en made a Seal, and the fireworks display the hosts had saved for later started going off. The loud booms and dazzling lights brought the whole party outside, both to investigate and to escape the heat of the indoors.

Of course, the fireworks had been rigged by Shin'en's Water Clones earlier. When the air started to tinge with the telltale smell of magnesium, that was when Arashi decided that the gas had spread far enough, and he struck a match off the side of his mask.

Three acres of land stretching up into the sky instantly went up in flame.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It would be not even a whole hour later when local police arrived with Hidden Mist shinobi in tow, and it took them hours more to dig through the ashes to find the partial remains of what might have been human beings. The mansion was just fine, not a blemish anywhere, but the grass and the trees were toast.

If not for the grinning white mask left in a very conspicuous place, the event would've had heads being scratched for years over the mystery, but that mask told all the secrets:

Yūrei had massacred over two hundred aristocrats in a single night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Things are looking better. Spring Break is in a few days, starting on March 11, which leaves me with ample time for writing and gaming.**_

 _ **I'm at Level 85 since I last updated, for those curious, and am looking forward to playing the last chapter of the DLC.**_

 _ **There were some Reviews about the seeming lack of quality of recent chapters, and you guys are correct. I'm sacrificing quality for quantity in the effort to get to juicier portions.**_

 _ **Next chapter will involve a train.**_

 _ **Also, take special heed to the tidbits of Shin'en's dreams about Persephone, for they will become important in future chapters regarding development of characters and their relationships.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en felt kind of icky, and it had nothing to do with human ash on him. Those people that Arashi just lit up had just been having a good time, enjoying a night off with friends and family. There hadn't been any gossip going around, no sharing of dirty secrets, only fun stories and jokes.

All of those people just trying to escape the horror of living in a war-torn land for a few hours out of the year…dead. For no real reason than to ease a woman's burden when she took power.

 _If_ she took power.

Regardless of Shin'en's feelings on the matter, he raised his glass and this time felt just how meaningful this toast was to honor the departed.

"And to the next man to die."


	46. A Train, some Planes, and a Blimp

_A Train, some Planes, and a Blimp_

 _ **So, I finished the DLC and have topped out at level 93, and from what I gather, Aya is a descendant of Kassandra, which technically means Aya is more responsible for the creation of the Brotherhood than Bayek.**_

 _ **Also, the legendary sword that you get from Amorges sucks.**_

 _ **I want there to be a legendary perk that lets you pick all the engravings for your gear. Is that too much to ask for?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _And a blimp. The blimp had been nice. Granted, he and Sukina and Bullock had murdered everyone on board before crashing the thing on one of Yagura's forward bases, but still._

-excerpt from Chapter 49 of _Backup Plan_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'" _Have you ever been on a plane before?" Persephone asked. "Do they even have planes in that other place?"_

" _Not ones this big, no. They had a few, once upon a time, but they're all gone now."_

" _Oh, what happened to them?"_

" _I destroyed them."'_

 _-_ exchange between Persephone and Shin'en

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'" _Ah, trains. Something I know of. Lead the way then."_

" _What've you done on a train?" Persephone asked._

" _Killed everyone on board before blowing it off the tracks down the side of a mountain."'_

-another exchange between Shin'en and Persephone

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _October 10, 1012 A.S._

Shin'en was now officially twelve years old along with his big sister. He had a dream of the celebration—though celebration was hardly the right word, seeing as how Persephone was holed-up in Yancy Academy with the satyr. The school had a morning announcement system, in which students were brought down to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and the New York Pledge, in that order, and go over some upcoming events. They also went over all the birthdays for the day, and those recognized got to come down to the office and receive a little goodie bag.

Persephone got her goodie bag, and it was stolen some time later in the day.

She was also supposed to get a card in the mail from her mother, but it got "lost" along the way and would never arrive, mostly because it got put in a shredder.

Persephone was treated no better on her birthday than she was any other day, with rich students that picked on her for her obvious lack of funds, teachers that demeaned her for her underperformance due to her ADHD and dyslexia, and students who picked on her for that.

However, Mr. Brunner had given her a slice of blueberry pie after classes, and that one simple act had been more than enough to completely override all the negativity of the day, making her twelfth birthday an awesome one. It got even better because Susano'o played mailman again and delivered a simple little note to her nightstand that said:

 _Happy birthday,_

 _-Percy_

That had sent Persephone through the sun.

What did Shin'en do for his birthday, you might ask? Well, he blew up a hospital, killing everyone inside. The pregnant women, the newborns, the small children, the adults, the elderly, and all the soldiers of Yagura that were in need of healing.

It was quite the display, really.

Far more impressive than any fireworks show.

"So, what's mission today?" Shin'en asked as he sat at the table, eating lunch while kicking his legs back and forth.

"A train," Arashi answered.

Shin'en blinked. "A train?"

"Yes, it's a new vehicle whose designs were imported from the Land of Snow. It's fast, armored, and can carry many tons of equipment and supplies."

"I know what a train is," Shin'en said with a huff, having seen them in some previous dreams of his sister. "What are we going to _do_ with it?"

"Rob it, duh," Bullock said.

"Why couldn't you have just opened with that?" Shin'en asked Arashi.

"Because it'd be no fun if we just _gave_ you everything. Much more fun to watch you struggle a little bit, and play with your head."

Shin'en stuck his tongue out at him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the grand scheme of things, the likes of a train being employed by Yagura to move things was rather dumb. Trains were loud, heavy, and slow, especially when compared to shinobi who could rocket along at upwards of three hundred miles and hour, and even faster for the stronger ones, without making a sound, as compared to the thunderously loud engine of a train, and the sound of its wheels grinding along the track.

The storage capacity wasn't worth the trade off either, because shinobi had these things called storage scrolls, and while there was a limit to how much each scroll could carry inside due to whatever kind of Seal was etched inside, it was not uncommon to Seal an entire warehouse of stuff inside of dozens of scrolls, and then Seal those scrolls into other scrolls, and eventually get to the point to where you simply had one scroll containing any and everything for easy travel.

Yūrei did that a lot.

It was with this logical thinking that all of the black ops squad knew that Mei wanting them to hijack this train had more meaning to it than what was on paper, and they knew that Mei obviously didn't have all the intel herself, because it wasn't like her to keep things hidden from her most effective soldiers.

And so Yūrei, after finding the train using the given schedule, followed it for an hour, with Shin'en telling his family how many people were onboard, which were shinobi and which were engineers, based on levels of chakra, and Arashi asked for more information, like height, weight, gender, chakra type, etc., and so Shin'en provided all that he could up until he got annoyed and said, "Would you like to know how much weight each one is going to lose the next time they take a dump?"

"Yes," Arashi said seriously.

"No, fuck you. That's gross."

Shin'en did note some people sitting in positions in front of what he thought to be computers and sensors, which was another reason Yūrei held back, because they didn't know what was what.

Towards the end of the hour, Yūrei noticed how the train's tracks were taking the massive vehicle to within ten miles of a Rebel camp, and that's when things got fun.

The roofs of two of the cars opened up, revealing twin rows of black metal cylinders, all of them clearly barrels for a projectile weapon. The barrels rose and were pointed, before each one spat a weak cough of smoke and launched several round objects into the sky. They went sailing out of sight, and then moments later, the horizon flashed brilliantly.

The thunderclap came shortly after.

To say Yūrei was surprised was an understatement. They were shocked to the core at seeing a machine perform such an action. Shinobi, sure, but a machine made by civilians? That kind of power? Preposterous.

It also begged the simple question of:

"What now?" Shin'en asked.

"We kill everyone aboard and blow this thing to kingdom come."

Arashi was not about to allow such a powerful weapon to fall into the hands of Yagura or anyone. The Tailed-Beasts were a nightmare in and of themselves, the last thing the world needed were civilian-made machines that could output the same devastating power.

And so Yūrei attacked.

The train had countermeasures, like projectile turrets and electrified outer plating, but the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist were undaunted and they infiltrated.

Sukina used her senbon to strike at lethal areas.

Bullock used his wires and diced people to ribbons.

Yūwaku popped her claws and made a mess.

Arashi used brute strength to bludgeon people left and right.

Shin'en used his Lightning Fangs to cut apart limbs like melting ice cream.

After no more than three minutes of hard ultraviolence, Yūrei had cleared the train and burned the schematics and set the explosives down the way. When the train reached the point, the five shinobi were clear, and the explosives went off, sending thousands of tons of metal plummeting down the side of a mountain, tearing through trees and rocks and tumbling down into a ravine where a secondary explosion happened.

As the flames and smoke curled into the crisp night sky, Yūrei stood there and watched, the flickering light dancing across their masks as they beheld the destruction they so easily wrought.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _November 17, 1012 A.S._

It was now clear that Yagura had created a war machine that far exceeded simple swords and kunai. In the wake of the Rebels getting their own upgraded weapons—delivered to them by Yūrei—the Loyalists had received their own upgrades, and warfare was changing in a way that no one, not even the Loyalists really liked.

Long-distance train projectiles?

Battle suits?

Airborne machines?

Uh, no thank you; let's stick to slaughtering people up close, please.

Not that anyone under Yagura's command was going to openly complain about such new developments, which was why they mostly secretly praised Yūrei—or at least, it was strongly suspected that it was Yūrei—for destroying the factories and schematics and warehouses that contained all these "modern" abominations.

With the war having ramped up, Yūrei had become very busy. With all the duties they had to perform in service to Mei, they also had to keep up with their contracts because money, and they were still trying to keep up their neutral appearance of no-sided scavenger mercenaries. As such, they were the five-man group wasn't necessarily spread thin, but one member had to step up and become a trooper.

With Shin'en being able to spawn a small army of Shadow Clones with as much ease as someone going pee after waking up with a full bladder, that made him the go-to guy for most of the contracts that came in. Yes, Yūrei helped a lot by making their own smattering of elemental clones, but most of the burden fell onto Shin'en's shoulders, and that created only a small mountain of psychological backage, as since the war picked up, tensions rose all over the Land of Water, which created a lot of people that snapped under the pressure and gave into whatever kind of morbid stress relief their minds determined was the best thing for them.

As all these chapters are being seen from the perspective of the Greeks, and only what is being seen is that which was containing of a fragment of Shin'en's soul, these missions would only be covered in expositional flashback when Shin'en felt like it.

You lucky people get to know about them because I'm nice enough to tell you about them.

Anyway; moving on.

"Planes?" Shin'en said slowly, dark bags under his droopy eyes. He had never heard the word before. "What's a 'plane'?"

"It's a surface on which things are built," Bullock supplied.

Shin'en glowered at him, which elicited a snicker from the green-haired man.

Arashi, with a small smile tugging at his lips, answered, "From the intel gathered, a plane is a small aerial vehicle that can be operated by a single person, called a pilot. Planes are fast, maneuverable, and quiet. They've been dropping bombs on the Rebels for a week now, and they're losing ground. We're supposed to stop it."

"So we're going to blow up the factory?"

"Mm-hm."

"Do we know where it is?"

Arashi shook his head.

"I'll go look for it…"

Which meant he was going to go somewhere quiet and separate his essence from his body and invoke his divine powers of finding whatever the fuck it was he was looking for.

Shin'en stood up, took four steps, and would've fallen onto his face if Yūwaku hadn't caught him and scooped him up into her arms and taken him to her room for a much-needed rest, because A) the little boy hadn't slept in _three weeks_ , and B) his diet had consisted primarily of protein bars and whatever bugs he found crawling around.

Sukina was of the firm conclusion that he hadn't pooped in over six days, not so much because he had been holding it for so long, but because he wasn't eating enough for his body to create waste from it, indicating malnourishment, and that theory was greatly supports by Shin'en's thin frame and gaunt face.

As Yūwaku walked away, Bullock frowned. "The kid's pushing himself too far. He needs a break."

"I know," Arashi said, and he ignored the glower from Sukina. "But we're almost done. A few more months and this war will be over, for better or for worse."

"I hope so. For all our sakes," Sukina said.

With Yūwaku, she had to fight her ever-persisting dark, selfish desire to completely baby Shin'en, and treat him like her long-dead toddler son by putting his cheek up to her breast to feed him, slip a pull-up on him and pretend like he had accidents, and sing lullabies to him while she gently rocked him back and forth until he stilled.

She never did it because A) it was selfish, B) it was stupid, C) it was pathetic of her, D) it would be pathetic to see someone as strong and powerful as Shin'en in such a position, E) it was wrong to willingly put Shin'en in such a position, F) it was a supreme betrayal of her bond with the boy, and G) the last time Shin'en woke up in such a position as being babied to the degree Yūwaku selfishly desired, he had smashed the woman responsible with the bottom of his foot so many times that she resembled an overripe field of pumpkins that got caught under a stampede.

A fate Yūwaku wanted to avoid, of course.

So, she restricted herself from giving into her desires, and settled for curling up in her bed with Shin'en held protectively in her embrace.

Truly, of all Yūrei, she was the most broken, for she had never moved on from her son's butchering and still clung to the erroneous fantasy of pushing her desires with her son onto any little boy that came along, which she had done, and those were dead now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The planes were small, built only for one pilot. They had to lay flat on their bellies and control the ailerons and elevators using their hands and feet. There was a single engine located at the back of the craft that ran on chakra, and there were guns that fired senbon needles that were rolled with explosive tags located at the front.

In the future, when Shin'en would sit down and watch Disney's _Atlantis_ , he would compare these planes to the movie's Whitmore Wings.

Yūrei was currently at the airbase, which was a massive flat expanse of land with a Sealing barrier hiding it from normal detection. There was a mile-long strip of concrete with painted lines on it, a big warehouse that undoubtedly contained parts and extra planes, and several smaller buildings that served as quarters and other installations.

On the runway was a battalion of planes, engines glubbering.

"I think they're about to take off," Shin'en observed.

"Agreed," Arashi said. "Prevent that and bring this place down."

To save time, Shin'en cut loose with his Gale Style. He clasped his hands and Sealessly, wordlessly, discharged a stream of Laser Circus that curved through the air and blew every ship apart by destructing the engines, and went sailing onwards to the base itself, where the lasers curved and swerved on Shin'en's command, and blew superhot holes through _every person on the base_.

Yūrei just sat there, rather stunned at the admittedly beautiful display of dancing lasers before them.

Shin'en then commanded his lasers to go sailing up into the air, and then all come flying down. The base promptly exploded in a dazzling show of explosions.

"…well then," Arashi said after a while. "I guess that's that."

"Uh, since when could you do that?" Bullock asked.

"Since I was eight."

"Why have you never done that before?"

"We're supposed to be assassins. Wouldn't a bunch of really bright lasers be counterintuitive to being assassins?"

"I suppose…"

With yet another massive plume of fire and smoke rising into the night sky, Yūrei declared their mission a success, and headed back home.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _December 25, 1012 A.S._

In the waning days of the year 1012, Yūrei was ordered by Mei to bring down yet another of Yagura's war machines, this one being called a "blimp."

It was basically a massive balloon that went too high for any conventional weapons and methods to cause damage, and could deliver devastating attacks from altitude. Mei knew this because the damn thing was already airborne and had destroyed two towns that were housing her soldiers.

She personally didn't have anyone on hand that could handle such a beast, and so she saddled Yūrei with the job because if anyone could do it, they could.

And they did.

Shin'en saw where the blimp was in a dream, and once he and his family found it, they followed it until it had to settle down at one of Yagura's bases to refuel, and when that happened, Sukina, Bullock, and Shin'en hopped aboard, with Yūwaku and Arashi hanging back as per the backup plan.

"So…indiscriminate slaughter?" Shin'en asked.

"Yes, but keep it quiet," Sukina said.

"But also remember that no one will notice if there's no one _to_ notice," Bullock advised.

"That too."

Shin'en nodded at his two elders, and the three darted off in their own directions to take care of business. They were all professional assassins going up against people whose focus was keyed into flying the airship, and so their job was made all the easier by the supreme lack of awareness by the crew.

Shin'en went away from the bridge, attacking the aft and lower decks. When he was done, he made his way back up to the bridge, passing by bodies that had been sliced apart by something very fine, and bodies that had been stabbed together or were pinned to the walls and ceiling by senbon needles.

He entered and found Sukina and Bullock at the controls.

"Um…what's the plan?"

"We're going to crash this thing into that base it just left."

Shin'en nodded at Sukina's answer. "How are we going to survive?"

"We're going to jump out and use our superpowers to fly down like a bunch of angels," Bullock said.

"What?"

Sukina slapped the green-haired man's head, and then looked at Shin'en. "From this height, we can just jump and it'll be alright."

"Okay."

And so the three of them, after having slaughtered everyone on board, worked the blimp in such a way that they crashed it into the base and set it into a role the wiped out everything in a one-mile path, creating a massive trail of fire and death in its wake.

Shin'en crossed his arms and pouted under his mask. "We're supposed to be _assassins_ , but we keep blowing things up and leaving a bunch of fire everywhere."

Arashi patted his head. "We're doing a pretty bad job, aren't we?"

"Uh-huh."

"Come on. Time to go home."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once there, they performed their ritual, same as they always had for the past two years and before Shin'en came along.

"To the dead," Arashi raised his glass, and Yūrei raised theirs.

"And to the next man to die."

They downed their sake, and Shin'en asked to no one in particular:

"We're almost done, aren't we?"

Arashi nodded. "Just a few more months."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **This was three chapters rolled into one, meaning we're that much closer to the end of the Blood War. I am sorry for the lack of meat to the chapters, and for how rushed they are, and for how much I pumped this story only for it to be so disappointing—at least, according to some Reviews, anyway.**_

 _ **Speaking of, we hit the 800 mark last chapter, yay!**_

 _ **Like Arashi said, we're almost done, with the only major parts left being the Seven Swordsman and the Kariudo.**_

 _ **For those that forgot who the Kariudo are, they are the anti-Yūrei group introduced back in Chapter 42.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	47. Ghostbusters

_Ghostbusters_

 _ **We've entered the falling action.**_

 _ **I do apologize for the absence of so many hinted stories that were talked about in**_ **Backup Plan** _ **, but I will cover them later. There's still that magical one year that Shin'en promised Persephone, and that'll come up soon enough…or will it?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _January 3, 1012 A.S._

 _Hidden Mist_

Yagura slammed his forehead into his desk, causing the entire piece of furniture to collapse in a shower of splinters. He raised his purple eyes at the frightened little messenger girl and restrained himself from killing her in frustration.

"Get. Out."

The girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her, in need of a new set of pants.

Yagura seethed by himself, red chakra starting to bubble out from his pores, and that's when he started his breathing exercises taught to him years ago when the Three-Tails was Sealed into him. Once he regained his composure, he sat back down in his chair, and lamented to loss of his beloved desk.

It had seen many good years of loyal service.

Now, as to what had pissed the Fourth Mizukage off so much to where he lost his cool and exploded in a fit of rage that resulted in the destruction of his constant companion? That would be a report detailing the losses of the train, the planes, and the blimp, along with the schematics for the machines, the engineers and crewman that built them, and several hundred good men, all at the _suspected_ hands of one Yūrei.

 _Suspected_ his youthful ass. The entire Rebel army couldn't have brought down a single one of those weapons, much less all three in a three-month time period. No, that was Yūrei's work, detailed by their calling card of there literally not being anyone left alive, which was why the report had taken so long to compile because with no communication there had been no knowledge of destruction.

Now Yagura faced a dilemma: his forces were spread thin, the Rebels had adapted well to guerilla warfare, his war machines were destroyed with no time to rebuild them, he was running out of generals because they kept mysteriously disappearing in the dead of night, never to be seen again, and the people he ruled were starting to do very dangerous things, such as _thinking_.

Thinking that maybe the filthy bloodline users with their tainted blood weren't the cause for all the Land of Water's misfortune. Thinking that maybe this war was doing nothing but causing harm all over the land. Thinking that maybe he, Yagura of the Three-Tails, had lost his mind and was now (had been) out of control and waging a genocide campaign.

There were uprisings, thefts, even bombings.

It was pissing Yagura off.

 _Why_ couldn't these people see that all that he was doing, all the sacrifice and bloodshed, was for _their_ benefit? That all of this was for them? And the betterment of _their_ lives? The bloodline users were cheaters, and thought their taint was enough grounds for them to receive special privilege and preferential treatment, and they used to strut around everywhere they went acting entitled, like their disease made them superior.

That fucking Kaguya clan years back had exemplified all this, when they attacked the Hidden Mist in a doomed campaign to seize power and instill their own regime.

Bloodline users were corrupt and arrogant, and he, Yagura, had been doing a noble and just thing in wiping them and creating a fair world for his people.

And now his people were rising against him.

The dangerous game had begun: if Yagura made examples of the criminals, such as publicly executing them after publicly torturing them, it could instill terror and mistrust in the minds of the people, and that was something Yagura didn't want. _He_ was the one to be trusted; the bloodline users were _not_. However, performing such a practice could inspire more revolt, stoking the flames and causing an inferno to erupt.

Yagura _really_ didn't want to make his streets run red, but it was becoming increasingly difficult not to give the order and let his Seven Swordsmen have fun.

Well, _Seven_ no longer applied, as Ameyuri was still officially MIA, presumed dead six years ago, Zabuza was AWOL, and Kisame had abandoned his post at the daimyo's side, meaning he was also AWOL, and Yagura didn't have the Hunter Ninja available to go find them. To add salt to this injury, the corresponding sword were also missing.

So, the only Swordsmen left were Jinin Akebino with his Kabutowari, or Helmsplitter, Kushimari Kuriarare with his Nuibari, or Needle Sword, Jinpachi Munashi with his Shibuki, or Blastsword, and the defacto leader in light of his kenjutsu mastery and superior intellect, Mangetsu Hozuki with his Hiramekarei, or Twinsword.

Yagura held a great respect for members of the Hozuki Clan, as his predecessor was a Hozuki, and because the clan was not a clan of bloodline users, but a clan with a Secret Technique, one that they implanted with great efficiency, and they didn't lord their so called "superiority" over others with their Technique.

Yagura respected the clan so much that he allowed them to keep their secrets.

Anyway, beyond the problems here at home, there were problems abroad, such as the Rebels gaining ground and steadily setting up a siege around the Hidden Mist. Reports of their movements indicated a strangulation pattern, as they were claiming territory around the village after destroying outlining bases and camps of loyalist forces so that they wouldn't have to fight both behind and in front.

Yagura had to applaud Mei for her tactics, but gods above did he damn her for everything else.

And just what to do about?

He could send the remaining Swordsmen into battle, and that would really help turn the tide, but that would also leave the village vulnerable to internal attack. There was already word of dissent among the ranks, and the last thing Yagura needed was to face an army of insurgents while his most powerful soldiers were away.

Then again, he could join the frontlines himself and leave the village in the care of the Swordsmen.

 _Or_ he and the Swordsmen could join the war as a travelling battalion, wiping out Rebel cells as they found them while also collecting any remnant loyalist forces there were, and become an army by the end of the month that had enough numbers to not only crush the Rebellion but also bring any turmoil in the Hidden Mist to a swift heel.

Yagura liked that idea. He'd appoint a steward to rule in his stead, and he'd get an excuse to ditch the paperwork and enjoy an opportunity to flex his muscles and kill some people.

Now, if only he could get the peace of mind he wanted in regards to the Yūrei situation. The last report he got from the Kariudo was that they were having minimal luck in gaining leads, and were going to switch tactics.

He didn't care about tactics, he just wanted results.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Another dead informant," Bullock said casually.

"Yes, it seems we're being targeted," Arashi surmised. "But by who, I wonder. We've made far too many enemies in our line of work to narrow it down to anyone specific enough."

Then they all looked at Shin'en, who was busy eating a bowl of cereal. He swallowed his mouthful and asked, "What?"

"Have you seen anything in your dreams?" Sukina asked.

"Only Sephy going through potty training—which was kind of funny—Sally having to do taxes—which was really sad, in the sad way, not the pathetic way—and the walrus being a walrus. There was also this thing where Sephy made friends with a black Pegasus."

Yūwaku tilted her head to the side. "Is she going to have sex with it?"

The blonde dodged a bowl of cereal.

"Hey, just asking. Your family's weird."

"Not my family," Shin'en said. "You guys are my family."

A little bit of quiet fell over the room.

"Have you seen anything in your dreams regarding the group or person or multiple groups that are ruining our business?" Arashi asked.

"Yeah."

"Well?"

"Three women, two of which are sisters, and two men. The older sister is called Aome, her younger sister Shirome, and the other woman is Hasami. The first male is Aruk, and the other is called Niwa. He's the leader."

"Are they a threat?"

Shin'en had to stop and think about based on what he had seen. "Um, as much a threat as anyone is if you don't take them seriously. But, if we do fight them seriously, we'll probably break a sweat."

"Ah, so a decent threat. Did you see us meeting anywhere?"

"Nope."

"Then we send a message and arrange a meeting."

A day later, a burned down village was found by some passersby and they relayed the words that had been carved into the corpses.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en could tell that Arashi wasn't happy, and he could tell that what the man was about to say was going to make him very unhappy as well.

"You're being reassigned."

A laser blasted out the side of the mountain-built summer home and sailed over the land before losing cohesion and exploding.

" _What!?_ " Shin'en shrieked in a voice more appropriate for an irate teenage girl than a pubescent mass murderer with too much power. "We're about to go kill those other guys that keep ruining our business!"

Arashi's face remained like that of a stony cloud. "I know."

"Can't this wait until _after_ the fact?"

"No."

" _Why!?"_

"Because the place where you're being reassigned to needs help, and Mei wanted to send just you so there isn't a viable excuse for all of us to simply kill everyone there."

"Why is she suddenly using that tactic as opposed to the one she's been using for the past two years?"

"Because now Yagura is out and about with the remaining Seven Swordsmen, and he's going around the country collecting troops everywhere he finds them, building up a massive roaming army, and Mei needs every soldier she can gather, which is why you're being reassigned to reinforce the one of the fronts, so that there's minimal allied losses."

"…I'm coming right back after the battle's won."

"There is nothing in the orders that says you can't do that."

Shin'en took the documents with an attitude and stormed out of the daimyo's summer home, and then took off for where his new assignment was, fully intent on blowing everything up and then coming straight back to his family.

Back at the hideout, Sukina asked Arashi, "Was he really reassigned?"

"Yes."

And it was the truth.

And Sukina could tell it was the truth.

And she was stunned.

"Wow, I'm honestly amazed Mei would do something like that."

"She's an _idiot_ ," the Uzumaki grumbled. "Right as we're about to go take on what could possibly be our greatest challenge, she conveniently decides to pluck away our strongest member for something stupid."

"Do you think she's trying to kill us?"

Yūrei was in possession of very incriminating evidence to Mei's war crimes, and there was also what they were going to do with themselves after the war. It was a possibility that they could go work for any loyalist remnants and bring down the reborn Hidden Mist, or end up working for anyone that would hire them and go on to kill a lot of people that could be potential allies to the new Hidden Mist, and so there was just a lot of risk involved with keeping something like Yūrei alive.

It was a common practice in the Shinobi World, to kill off people or squads otherwise determined to be "loose ends," regardless of pledges of loyalty or years of unquestionable devotion.

Arashi exhaled slowly. "No…she wouldn't pull Shin'en away from us and then attempt such an act. She knows his dreams are more or less all-revealing, and he can't be snuck up on with his sensory prowess, so ambushing him won't work, and there's very little chance he'll be killed by any man, and she won't risk our lives with her hands on the money, because Shin'en will come unglued and will probably sink the entire Land of Water."

"A simple 'no' would've been acceptable," Sukina snarked.

Arashi's lips twitched upward. "Are you and the others ready?"

"As ready as we ever get to be to go face our potential deaths."

"Then let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Rebels were laying siege to a small city, from what Shin'en gathered. The reason for such an offensive was that this city was home to very fine factories that dealt in the making of shinobi clothes. Now, that sounded ridiculous, but it wasn't really when you stopped to think about it.

Shinobi moved at very high speeds, and so the clothes they wore needed to be very heat resistant to withstand the friction caused by shooting past the air at upwards of three hundred miles per hours. Those clothes also needed to be very quiet, as shinobi were expected to be stealthy, and the fibers needed to be woven in such a way that they dampened as much noise as possible. Further, shinobi, when not speeding over the land and sneaking through compounds, were very rough combatants , throwing each other through tree and buildings, skidding through across solid ground, making craters in the planet's surface, and so not only did shinobi clothes need to be heat resistant and quiet, they also needed to be very, very tough.

Hence why shinobi clothes were made only from chakra-grown silks and cottons, and weaved in with chakra-enhanced synthetics.

It was a very profitable business, what with the world's main trade being shinobi, but also very dangerous, as owning such a farm from which the cotton and silk was derived painted a target on one's back, and made one susceptible (more so than usual) to assassination, which is why, with all the money made from the farming, farmers hired quite the protection detail.

However, after the farms came the processing factories, which is what the Rebels were trying to get to, but the loyalist forces were holding out with a passion.

And Shin'en reported to the CO of the battle, a grizzled old man that smelled of alcohol and tobacco, which was really something because the tobacco that was tailormade for shinobi was supposed to be very odorless.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" the old man grumbled. "I ask for fucking reinforcements to take these fucking factories, and Mei sends me a fucking academy baby? Fuck everything."

Shin'en, wearing just a set of normal clothes and not his Yūrei uniform, scowled.

"Don't give me that look, bitch, I've been fighting wars since before your mother was getting her ass fucked by her uncle. I don't know what Mei thinks you're supposed to accomplish, but I think I have a use for you."

That was how Shin'en ended up bringing his new CO's drinks to him amidst the sounds of heavy battle. When he returned to the CO tent, he found the old man in the middle of an argument with who looked like maybe the second in command.

"We are losing this battle, sir! We need more troops to the southern silo. If we take it, we can set up a vantage point, and start taking out the loyalists' defenses!"

"NO!" the man slammed his fist down on the table, breaking it completely in half. "We are going with _my_ plan, because _my_ plan is working!"

"We're bringing wounded in by the dozen!"

The CO waved his hand. "Irrelevant. Those wounded men are weak anyway."

"Commander!" the second in command said aghast.

"You heard me," the man said evenly. "Now get your ass back out there and do as you're told before I have you cleaning the latrines with our reinforcements, here."

The second in command turned and saw Shin'en there with bottles of sake in hand, and he didn't look happy about what he had just been told he was going to do.

"You heard me, boy. Bring me my sake and go make sure the latrines are nice and clean for when I need to go take a dump later."

Shin'en took very long strides forward and thrust the sake bottles at the CO. The man fumbled and managed to catch them all, and bolted out of his chair with an angry purple face.

"WATCH IT, BITCH! THESE BOTTLES ARE SOME OF THE LAST FROM THE YASAKA FAMILY!"

At the word "Yasaka," the family which Kimiko had been a part of, the personality's feeling slipped through the mental iceberg Shin'en had her frozen in, and overwhelmed him for all of a moment. But that moment was all that was needed for Shin'en's body to move, and a swipe of his arm had the CO's head sailing through the air, streams of blood shooting from open wounds.

The second in command watched with slack jaw and wide eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Elsewhere_

Sukina blocked the katana blade with a senbon needle and grit her teeth at the numbing pain that rattled up her arm. The katana came again, and she blocked it with the other needle she had in her other hand, which resulted in another snake of pain slithering up to her shoulder.

"If you would stop doing that and let me cut you, this'd be over now and you wouldn't be hurting," Aome said.

"Eh, no pain no gain."

Sukina couldn't find an opening to get an attack in, and Aome continued the dance with another strike, causing a shrill _CHING_ to rattle their battlefield clearing.

Meanwhile, Bullock was having just as much luck/trouble with Aome's little sister, Shirome. The little hellion was way too light on her feet, and that sword of hers had some funky shit going on with it, in that its specific kills could be Summoned, and so Bullock was fending off multiple attacks by doing what looked like anerobic conducting.

His wires got pulled this way and that, they went taught in some places, slack in others, and they moved. However, his opponents were nimble and observant, and he couldn't get them entrapped.

' _Dammit,'_ Bullock mentally cursed. _'I'm a one-on-one fighter, not a one-on-half a dozen fighter.'_

"Will you just give up and die already?" Shirome called. "It's almost time for my nap."

"Then how about you go take your nap, and I'll kill you in your sleep. I promise to make it quick and painless."

"No thanks!"

Bullock pulled his wires taught to block a six-sided onslaught of attacks.

"Does this feel weird to you?" Hasami asked Yūwaku as she slashed with her oversized pair of scissors.

"As in we shouldn't be fighting and should instead be really good friends?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

Yūwaku brought her claws in front of her face and grimaced as her legs wobbled slightly under the power of Hasami's overhead swing. Yūwaku ripped her hands outward, sending the purple-clad young woman skidding away over the soft, moist ground.

"Shame I have to kill you," Yūwaku said.

"Yeah, we might've been great friends."

The blonde pushed off the ground with lion-like roar, and the purplette shot forward, the light gleaming off her glasses.

That left Arashi to fight against the other two members of the Kariudo, Aruk and Niwa. Arashi didn't have a clue as to who Aruk was, but Niwa on the other hand.

"The Uzumaki are an endangered clan, and one of my own is here to kill me."

Niwa's eyes narrowed. "I'm no clansman with a filthy murderer like you."

"Filthy murderer," Arashi mused. "You've got a lot to learn, boy."

"Then let's see what you have to teach me, old man."

Niwa produced a large pocket watch with a design like that of a crow carved along its outer edge, and the watch's face split open to reveal a large eye, one that glowed brightly. Niwa tossed it in the air, causing it to flip rapidly, and he caught it across his body and thrust it forward, causing a Sealing Circle to come glowing into existence. The Seal moved backwards, and as it passed Niwa's body, it left him covered in armor. The Seal finished its job and blinked out.

"The Uzumaki Power Armor…yeah, I've got one of those, too."

Arashi went through the same process Niwa did, only his Power Armor was bigger, heavier, and at his sides were two heavy strips of material that covered his legs.

Like it's been stated in a previous chapter, the designs for the Power Armor come from the anime _Karas_ , and so a trip through the interwebs will provide better details.

Aruk kinda just stood there, feeling out of place in the presence of these armored warriors.

Niwa drew his sword, the katana blade so fine that its travel through the air elicited a high-pitched whine, and Arashi did the same. The two sped forward, all of their chakra locked inside their bodies, meaning all of their physical capabilities were boosted through the ceiling.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You're a hero!" the second-in-command—now the first in command, making him the new CO exclaimed to Shin'en in the twilight of the factory battle.

The demigod had cut completely loose, using the Lightning Armor in conjunction with the Black Lightning Tattoo to become an even deadlier whirlwind of death than he usually was, and he ripped right through the loyalists' defenses and eradicated literally all of them, and the only Rebel casualty since his arrival here was that of the old CO.

Considering Mei's reasoning from dragging him away from Yūrei, to minimize casualties, Shin'en thought he did a good job.

The son of Poseidon made an uncommitted grunt to the CO. "I've got somewhere to be. Bye."

And then he vanished in a swirl of vapor, causing the CO's eyes to bug out of his head at what he thought had been a chakraless, Sealess Teleportation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After this was over, the four members of Yūrei that were present at the current time were going to come up with a plethora of excuses to explain themselves.

One excuse was that they were out of shape, having not actually fought any strong opponents in literal years, as they had spent most of their time performing assassinations and fighting grunts. Sparring against each other didn't count.

Another excuse was that they hadn't been prepared enough, not having good intel on who they were facing, and therefore hadn't been able to make any effective plans for the fight.

Yet another excuse was that the Kariudo had simple been stronger than them.

Yūrei, despite their accomplishments and power and prowess, were still human beings, and therefore capable of diving an endless amount of reasons for their shortcomings, instead of simply taking responsibility for their failure.

As it was, the Kariudo had been well-equipped, well-informed, and well-prepared, and through a massive combination of so factors, nearly won the battle.

But then a very angry demigod came crashing onto the scene, and he threw what could probably be oversimplified as the ultimate temper tantrum. To be fair, he hadn't slept in almost two whole weeks, and so he had a valid excuse for being cranky.

Shin'en had come unglued, truth be told, as soon as he got within range and felt the banged-up state his family was in compared to the few scratches and bruises on the other guys. What really sent him over the edge, however, was the fact that one of the other guys was the girl whose life he had spared a few months back, which meant that, technically speaking, Yūrei's injuries were his fault, and that kind of baggage weighed heavily on his mind.

The perceived fact that they almost died because of him.

An irrational perception, sure, but emotions, by nature, were irrational anyway, and there was no point in trying to talk logic into the mind of an emotionally charged person.

Niwa, still in the Power Armor, died first, and he put up the most of a fight by throwing a single punch that got weaved, and then took a punch straight through his heart, meaning that Shin'en's little twelve-year-old fist, emboldened by the combination of Black Lightning and the Lightning Armor, was more than strong enough to break through one of the Uzumaki's most powerful creations in a mere instant.

Shin'en then ripped through Niwa and chopped Aruk in half at the waist, darted to Hasami who was fast enough to swing her giant scissors, only for them to shatter against the defensive shield of the Lightning Armor, and she was vertically split in half for her troubles.

Aome had grabbed Shirome and made a run for it as soon as she felt the ungodly typhoon of chakra enter her range, and she made it fifteen feet while Shin'en killed the other three, and then she lost her head, because the demigod took it off when he went shooting past her.

Aome was confused for a little bit as to why her vision had suddenly gone wonky, and then her eyes widened when she realized what had happened, and she died. Shin'en dropped the skull and towered over the kneeling and in shock Shirome.

Lightning flickered all around him. His eyes glowed. His hair was close to standing straight up. His lips were curled back into a deadly snarl. All of his rage was now focused solely on Shirome, and she knew it, and she knew why.

He had spared her life once, and in return, she had nearly killed the ones he clearly loved.

She gulped and bowed submissively, putting her face into the ground, hoping she could appease the little god before her.

Alas, she did not, and she was soon reunited with her sister and parents.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _February 1, 1012 A.S._

The war was in its final stages now, everyone could see and feel that.

Yagura had left the Hidden Mist, taking his most powerful troops with him to gather an army from the remnant forces left in the Land of Water, and over the course of the past few weeks, he had built up enough forces to where he divided them among the Swordsmen and adopted a divide and conquer strategy.

Mei Terumi was cutting down bits and pieces of each force herself, leading the charge of bloodline users and sympathizers against the pint-sized tyrant.

There were five major battles going on around the Land of Water, and they were without a doubt the bloodiest ones of the war.

Right now, however, none of that mattered to Yūrei. The five shinobi were sitting on top of the daimyo's summer home that had been built into the side of a small mountain, and above them was the clear and beautiful night sky, the countless stars of the Milky Way painted across the endless void.

"What happens to us after the war?" Shin'en asked in a small voice.

He was nuzzled into Sukina's side, his free hand clasped in Yūwaku's. Bullock was on the blonde's other side, and Arashi on Sukina's, putting Shin'en in the middle of them all.

"I mean, are we…are we going to disband? Like, all of us go our separate ways and do our own thing, and only maybe keep in touch a little bit?"

"That depends," Arashi said. "Namely, are you going to go back to the Cloud and pursue your revenge dream? Are you going to go back to Yugito?"

The Sea's Tear, Yugito's gift to him on his tenth birthday, suddenly felt very heavy around his neck. Shin'en's heart ached at the thought of the woman he had once accidentally called his mom. Thinking of moms, however, and some of the things he had seen mothers doing to their own children in this fucked up country, rather soured the thought.

"No," Shin'en shook his head. "I don't want to go back. I want all of us to stay together."

"Oh? And what about your sister? Don't you want to make sure she'll be safe and alright?"

Shin'en's heart hurt some more, but the pain lessened as the words came out of him. "She'll be fine. She's got Mom, and she's going to make a whole bunch of friends at camp, and they're going to make sure everything is okay."

"Okay then…" Arashi trailed off. "Bullock."

"Hm?"

"Did you have any outstanding plans for after the war?"

"Not really. Truth be told, I've got no idea what to do with myself without a war going on and missions to do."

Arashi hummed, and then said, "Yūwaku."

"Nothing going on my end. I figured the wind would guide me."

Arashi nodded his head. "Sukina?"

She orangette stared up at the dazzling night sky, the starlight bathing the world in a lovely, soft embrace. "I was going to go away from this place, away from all this blood and killing and money and people hiring us to do bad things to other people, and I was going to take this little one with me, if he wanted to go, of course."

Shin'en smiled and bobbed his head.

"Then it's decided," Arashi said with a grin. "After the war is over and Mei is Mizukage, we're going to leave the Great Nations behind forever. We're going to get our own boat, and we're going to sail as far East as we can, and we're going to lead good lives. No more killing, no more espionage and lying, no more black ops…just the five of us, living honestly, as one happy family."

"A happy family…" Shin'en echoed softly, his eyes watering slightly. Then he closed them and smiled so wide and brightly that it had everyone else smiling too, infected by how much joy he was radiating.

"I love you guys."

Sukina rested her chin on top of his head. "We love you too, Percy."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Two more chapters and we're done with the Blood War. Next one will be the deaths of the Seven Swordsmen, and the one after that will be Shin'en vs. Yagura.**_

 _ **I really enjoyed that final scene there, with all of Yūrei enjoying some down time under the stars, making plans for after the war. Really adds some humanity to the Ghosts of the Bloody Mist, I think.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review!**_


	48. Killing the Killers--Justice?

_Killing the Killers—Justice?_

 _ **Nothing too special here, just the deaths of the Seven Swordsmen, and some other stuff.**_

 _ **Next chapter is the last chapter of the Blood War arc, and then it's a few more over some things that happened between Shin'en and the twins, and**_ **Xenophobic**

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Before Shin'en joined the squad, Yūrei were still some evil motherfuckers. Even individually, before they five of them were some hardcore sons of bitches.

Arashi himself was a veteran of the Third Great Ninja War, where he ran black ops even as a teen. He did horrible things, of course, beyond just killing people, such as torturing children, sending pets into their owner's homes with explosives attached, and leaving comrades to die because hard decisions.

Sukina had once been a happy child, until her parents were murdered in front of her eyes for being bloodline users, and then she came into her own powers, becoming a natural at infiltration. She used that to lie, cheat, and steal her way to survival, often framing others which got them dragged off to parts unknown, kicking and screaming, and she often had to just stand there, one of the crowd, and let horrible things happen to people.

Bullock had killed his own parents and older brother, because they were loyalists and he wasn't. His parents had planned to sell him into slavery, and so he killed them, and when his brother came investigating, he killed him with a simple trap. After that, Bullock did pretty much whatever as needed, which was an extensive list of sins, until Arashi recruited him, and that list got bigger.

Yūwaku had been born into slavery and used as concubine by her master's son. She was raped, she gave birth, and then she escaped. For three years she lived on the run with her baby, one of the youngest mothers in unrecorded history, and then got caught, and was forced to watch as her son was literally butchered alive, his parts packaged and sold away. After that, she went on a rampage that's never really stopped. Each battle she participates in, she's usually walked away looking like she had bathed in blood.

Shin'en himself had a history to him, slaughtering his whole class by himself, torturing people in the Hidden Cloud's dungeons, assassinating the parents of students that complained about him, killing swaths of innocent people in combat exercises that took place in black sites.

As a squad, they had blown up buildings with people still inside, murdered infants in their cribs, set fire to homes and people, butchered their fellow human beings like livestock to sell their organs on the black market, slaughtered soldiers indiscriminately, tortured children in front of their parents, kidnapped women and children to sell into slavery, stole the sum total of many a family's money, leaving them to go bankrupt and starve to death in the squalor of the streets, and rigged local elections to keep certain politicians in power.

That was just the short list of the bad things they did.

However, as much as they were devils, they were also angels.

Yūrei had been contracted to rescue people from out of collapsed mines. They had been contracted to rescue dogs and cats from a pharmaceutical company by a pet enthusiast. They had burned down plantations and freed the slaves kept there. They had brought down the Illegal Sex Rings of the Land of Water, completely destroying the chains of command and eradicating the facilities, freeing all the men, women, children, and animals being kept in those places for the sick and twisted sexual satisfaction of degenerates. They had swept the streets of many a town, killing the serial killers and rapists present there, and the maniacs.

They had been into various prisons, where the guards were performing illegal experiments on prisoners who were wrongfully convicted, and they freed everyone, killing the corrupt while they were at it. Yūrei had stolen money from the excessively wealthy, from those that horded their money and knew they were hording it, turning their noses up at the beggars and the poor, and given that money to the latter, often killing the former as well, which usually lead to the massive estates becoming civilian-run hospitals and shelters.

As much evil as Yūrei had committed, they had also committed to much good.

So, they were subject to the really big question: were they bad people?

As Arashi kept saying, there was no such thing as good guys and bad guys, just guys. Following that philosophy, Yūrei was neither, being neutral. Honestly, that sentiment worked, based on the system of balance, that all the bad things they did were cancelled out by all the good things they did, leaving them in the middle of the spectrum.

Technically, anyway.

Considering this, would their deaths be justice, or travesties?

The simplest answer to that would be dependent upon who you asked, and there were a lot of people you could ask.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _February 25, 1013, A.S._

With the war having entered its final, most brutal stages, Yūrei was now more or less a frontline hit squad tasked with killing the Seven Swordsmen of the Bloody Mist, (the ones that were alive and not allies, anyway, since Ameyuri was already dead and Zabuza was working for Mei now).

The locations of Mangetsu, Jinpachi, Kushimaru, and Jinin were unknown, as the four had split off from Yagura's entourage and were leading their own battalions all over the Land of Water, leading a total war campaign in effort to destroy any Rebel forces they came across, or thought they came across.

The Swordsmen were bloodthirsty maniacs at the end of the day, and with their Kage basically telling them to do whatever, they were all very keen on killing as much as possible for no other reason than because they could.

Even the level-headed Mangetsu was reported as having slaughtered multiple villages himself by the telltale fanged grin of his fellow Swordsmen. Simply put, the feared Hidden Mist elite had become rabid dogs, and they needed to be put down.

Hence, Shin'en's favorite mission yet: kill 'em all.

He still placed much blame on the Swordsmen because of what Ameyuri did several years ago, and had looked forward to getting his revenge ever since he stepped foot back in this blood-soaked country.

While the locations of the Swordsmen themselves weren't known, as they were constantly moving and leaving no one alive to tell anyone about them, and they weren't sending any communications to Yagura or anyone, their paths of death weren't hard to follow, and Shin'en had this nifty ability to see exactly what he wanted to see whenever he dreamt.

And so Yūrei was on the hunt.

The first of their prey to be found was Kushimaru Kuriarare.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The wielder of the Needle Sword was most likely the tallest shinobi in the Land of Water, if not the whole world. Or at least, he liked to think he was the tallest in the world.

Kushimaru also liked to think his blonde afro was the shit, and was blissfully unaware of how his subordinates thought of him as resembling a dandelion. No one was brave enough to say such a thing out loud in fear having the Needle go shooting through their bodies, trailing a wire with it, one that would go taught and pull them into a knot of flesh and bone.

Right now, however, height and hair and trash talk did not matter, because Kushimari had been rudely awakened by the sounds of people dying, and he wasn't the one killing them. He came storming out of his tent, intent on stabbing someone, and nearly dropped his sword at seeing the five masked and black-clad shinobi striking down his soldiers in droves.

His focus was turned to the sound of a sword he recognized most strongly, and he didn't know what to think about the midget cutting people with the Lightning Blades.

With Ameyuri's swords.

That thought in particular drove Kushimaru to attack, as he just now discovered his peeve for non-Seven Swordsmen using one of the Seven Swords.

The A-class shinobi wasn't an idiot however, and he didn't just rush in and start swinging wildly. He was dealing with Yūrei, which meant he was dealing with a very capably fighter, and he was also dealing with the Lightning Blades, a pair of swords he knew very well.

Without a doubt, they were the sharpest swords in the Land of Water, and could very easily cut the Needle Sword into pieces, so Kushimaru opened with a handful of shuriken, and as he did not at all predict, each shuriken passed through as if being thrown at water, which drove Kushimaru to believe the midget of Yūrei was a rogue Hozuki clan member, and after serving so many years with Mangetsu, Kushimaru found himself stumped as to how to proceed, because the Hozuki weakness was Lightning Style but the Lighting Fangs were nothing but Lightning Style, and based on the fundamental rules of chakra, like natures would cancel each other out, which meant that this Hozuki midget had managed to cover his main weakness, which was not a good situation for Kushimaru.

So he went with the basic technique that he and his fellow Swordsmen were basically god of: Silent Killing.

Kushimaru wordlessly and Sealessly cast the titular Hidden Mist Jutsu, spreading his chakra from his body to knead it into the atmospheric vapor to bring it all together into a thick mist that dampened hearing and restricted vision, all while increasing the caster's own senses.

Now, Kushimari didn't immediately slip behind the midget and run them through on his Needle Sword, nor did he even approach them at all. He made the assumption that the midget had the Hozuki clan's Liquefication Jutsu active, meaning that all physical attacks were useless, and using a Lightning Style attack would be pointless because the Lightning Fangs would just draw the jutsu into them, nullifying it.

So, the wielder of the Nuibari contented to a waiting game, calling upon his years of experience to read his opponent, and determine when they lowered their guard so that he could deliver a final, killing blow. A physical fight against the midget wouldn't work due to the Liquefication Jutsu, and the natural weakness to that jutsu was covered by the Lightning Fangs.

Kushimaru's game didn't last long, because the midget suddenly moved, speeding right for him, and he was only just barely able to Substitute with a nearby kunai to avoid being split in half, and then he had to Substitute again with another random weapon, because the midget had instantly locked onto him and zoomed in.

Kushimaru did his best to not let panic consume him at the fact that he was fighting someone who was seemingly immune to the effects of the Hidden Mist Jutsu, and who was fast enough to keep up with him even though he was using Substitution to basically teleport. Granted, the objects he was using were maybe a few meters apart because he was operating on the hair trigger and relying on instinct, but still.

Kushimaru did one last Substitution, and mid-swap, the midget created a swath of Water Clones using the very same water The Swordsman had been using for his Hidden Mist Jutsu, and when Kushimaru finished his jutsu, his brain got overwhelmed by panic at the new situation of not having anywhere else to go, and that moment of panic was enough to slow his reactions, and he was mercilessly cut down.

The Hidden Mist Jutsu was cancelled, and the Water Clones dispelled.

Kushimaru couldn't feel anything below his neck, which either meant his head had been cut off and he was going through that spoken-of eight minutes of final consciousness, or his spine had been irreparably damaged. Either way, his last moments were occupied by watching the midget be joined by the other four Yūrei, and all of them took off their masks.

' _Huh…so that's what they look like…'_

And then Kushimaru died, really bummed that he didn't get eight last minutes of life.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took Yūrei nearly another month to catch up to the army led by Jinin Akebino, wielder of the Helmsplitter, and it was the same song and dance.

Arashi, Yūwaku, Bullock, and Sukina took care of the two-hundred-ish force of ninja, Shin'en took care of the Swordsman.

Kushimaru's mistake had been a tactical one, thinking that the Hidden Mist Jutsu gave him an advantage, when really all it did was increase Shin'en's powers. Akebino's mistake was putting far too much confidence in his sword and his abilities.

Just why the Helmsplitter was considered a sword was beyond Shin'en, because the "sword" was literally an oversized axe connected to an oversized hammer by a chord.

"You might have Ringo's swords, kid, but you're far from her skill!" Akebino claimed.

Shin'en crossed his swords, eliciting a screeching cadence of sparks.

The A-class shinobi attacked, shooting forward faster than a bullet from a sniper rifle, axe and hammer aligned to deliver a reinforced blow. Akebino thought he had moved so fast that his opponent hadn't been able to follow him, but he was very surprised when he cleaved through nothing but air, and then he was cursing when he felt just the slightest of cold pinches about his waist and neck area.

Akebino heard these words before he died:

"I call it a vapor illusion. I use the water in the air to bend light waves like prisms and make false images appear. Thanks for helping me with it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jinpachi Munashi was probably the worst of the Seven Swordsmen, in both mannerism and ability. He used the Shibuki, or Blastsword, which did nothing special beside spit lengths of explosive tags everywhere, and that was his strategy: blow up everything around him. He was the worst mannerism-wise because he cackled insanely while he did that.

He would've gotten along rather well with Deidara, if Shin'en hadn't killed him.

During the ambush at the hands of Yūrei, Jinpachi swung his sword and let loose a massive length of explosives, blowing his camp up in a single blast, effectively killing the weaker members of his battalion, while those with strong enough chakra made it out with singes and burns.

The Swordsman heaved a little due to the panic at the onset of realizing who was in his camp, but that subsided and he let his guard down when nothing happened beside smoke rising around him. Jinpachi never knew about the little white mask that appeared behind him, because he got cut into no less than fifty pieces in the blink of an eye.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

If you were to say Yūrei was rushing things, they would agree with you.

But they were in a hurry now. They were spurned forward by their collective dream of getting on a boat and sailing as far away from the Great Nations as they could and make a life for themselves in whatever new world they found. To that end, they were moving with a furious pace and weren't going to stop until this final mission was done.

Because that's what they were: they were _done_.

Shin'en was _done_. He wanted Mangetsu, just for posterity's sake at this point, and that was it. That fire that had burned in him, that fire that desired revenge, it was dead embers now, just ash and a little bit of smoke. That fire had been eaten by the new fire, the fire that desired escape and freedom from the horrors and burdens of the Blood war, an escape from all the trauma and nightmares.

There were still many horrible stories that Shin'en had to tell about this war…

Anyway, that was Yūrei's campaign right now: shock and awe; strike hard and fast, don't let up until everyone was dead, and let Shin'en make mince meat of the remaining Seven Swordsmen. Yagura wasn't even a priority anymore, not for any of them. Once Mangetsu was dead, they were going to leave ASAP, not even worried about Mei's final push against Yagura forward basecamp.

Mangetsu Hozuki was to be Yūrei's final target.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The older brother of Suigetsu stared down at the shorter Shin'en, eyes serious. Around them, the other Ghosts slaughtered the Hidden Mist shinobi.

Mangetsu brandished the Twinsword and split it into its dual form to answer Shin'en's brandishing of the Thunderswords. The Hozuki grimaced, revealing his fanged teeth, at the severe disadvantage he was at. His primary technique was not only useless here, but a handicap.

Oh, well. He wasn't regarded as the smartest Swordsman for nothing.

Channeling chakra into the Twinswords, making them become shrouded in a cloudy aura, Mangetsu shaped the chakra into a pair of humongous scythes, and pushed forward.

His heart exploded in his chest and he died instantly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _May 29, 1013 A.S._

Arashi looked rather annoyed as he handed Shin'en a piece of paper.

"I swear to the gods if this some last-minute reassignment bullshit…"

"I wouldn't be giving something like that to you at this point."

"Oh, right…"

Shin'en took the paper, read over it, and then crumpled it up with an angry look. He threw it away and plopped down to his butt with crossed arms and a scowl.

"Bad news?" Sukina asked with a bit of a laugh.

"Mr. and Mrs. _Sue_ and _Nose_ want me to go help them on a fishing trip."

Yūrei shared a look, remembering the last time Mr. and Mrs. Sue and Nose had contracted Shin'en.

"What do you think Susano'o wants with you now?" Yūwaku asked.

"I don't know," Shin'en growled, "but if it's to tell me we need to stay in the Land of Water or he needs me on some interdimensional bullshit mission, I am going to kick his ass, and then tell him no."

The demigod sighed. "I'll be back hopefully within a few hours."

There was no point in ignoring the summons of Susano'o, and so Shin'en picked himself up and shooting away.

Yūrei finished Sealing up their things.

In Sukina's room, she stared at the collage on her wall, chock full of so many pictures of smiling people. Her, Shin'en, Bullock, Arashi and Yūwaku. If you looked at the pictures without context, you would've thought they were a group of college students on Spring Break, with Shin'en being someone's little brother.

There were pictures of them at the beach, pictures of Arashi teaching Shin'en Sealing Jutsu, pictures of Shin'en and Bullock having contests to see who could weave the more impressive designs with wires, pictures of Shin'en caught on the receiving end of a prank by Yūwaku, pictures of Yūwaku being pranked back, etc. However, Sukina's favorite pictures were of her and Shin'en, with him curled into her arms, fast asleep, or sitting in her lap while they listened to music together, or both of them with their faces side by side, grinning like loons as they took a selfie.

"Are you going to keep that?" Arashi asked from the doorway.

Sukina shook her head after a pause. "We're leaving this life behind us forever. This is part of that old life, and bringing it along would be bringing something from the past we want to let die. It would be stupid. Besides, I still have my camera, and I'm going to take lots more pictures."

Arashi nodded and went for Yūwaku's room, where he found her staring forlornly at the old package of her long-dead son's pull-ups.

"Are you going to bring those?"

"…no…no, I…I'm not…" she looked up at Arashi with teary eyes. "It's time to let Sukoshi go."

Yūwaku stood up and turned off the Seal that powered her refrigerator, the same one that kept Sukoshi's organs from rotting. She looked at Arashi defiantly—not defiantly _at_ him, but _with_ him, defiant against the tears, and defiant against life. The Uzumaki moved forward and gave Yūwaku a quick hug before leaving for Bullock's room.

The green-haired man was holding a picture of him and his family.

"Are you going to bring that?"

"Nope," Bullock said simply. He flicked his wrist and five thin streaks of light went through the picture. A moment later, it fell apart in six uneven pieces. "No point in bringing trash along."

Arashi nodded, and he went to his room.

Years back, Shin'en had gone through every room in the hideout, rifling through drawers and looking under the beds and exploring hidden alcoves and the like. Yūrei knew he was doing it, because they had more or less told him to. It was an exercise in familiarity and tactic used to build trust.

Because nothing built trust in each other better than knowing what kind of underwear they wore.

Anyway, the only room Shin'en had not been allowed entrance was Arashi's room, and that fact had led the boy to believe for all these years that the Uzumaki had been hiding something. That was only half the case.

Arashi's room was completely barren.

There was no carpet, nothing on the walls or ceiling, no furniture, no bed, no dresser, not even a stray kunai or an ink pot. Arashi's room was nothing but hardwood floor and dimly painted walls. Well, there was _one_ thing in the man's room, and that was medium-sized painting of him, his dead wife, his dead sons, his dead daughter, and his dead dog.

All having been killed by the combined invading forces of the Hidden Mist, Cloud, and Stone for the Uzumaki's actions during the First and Second Great Ninja Wars.

Arashi stared at the painting for a very long time, and after that time, he got down on one knee, put his fingers to his lips, and then put his fingers to the top of the painting.

"Goodbye…"

Arashi stood up and left, quietly closing his door behind him.

And then the Seals around the hideout went haywire to inform him of a very powerful intruder.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yagura did not know _why_ the little one had come into his tent to tell him the location of Yūrei's base, effectively betraying his own squad. Yagura wasn't even sure it was a willing action, because the little one had been covered in burning marks that had spread from a black tattoo on his shoulder, and when he spoke, it was a flat, robotic cadence, and that was why Yagura had believed the little one, and that was why he gone shooting out of his tent, skin gone and covered in a writhing black and red cloak that made him misshapen.

Yūrei had infuriated Yagura, you see, infuriated him to a degree that he had never, ever, experienced, ever in his life. The things they had done to undermine his authority, the good men they killed, the help they provided the Rebels, the gigantic bowl of shit they had turned the Land of Water into…

They were criminals of the highest kind, and traitors, as all of them had performed missions for Yagura, and that made them _his_ shinobi, and Yagura did not tolerate dissidence from _his_ shinobi.

Did that make any sense? No, not really, but he had been under that genjutsu for so long that his brain had become unstable and very, very addled, and so his thought processes, where before they were already shaky, were now completely insane.

That was why Yagura had immediately entered his Version 2 state and when tearing away at speeds literally faster than sound.

Yūrei was widely known for their ability to execute what was suspected to be outrageous plans, because there was just no way they could've pulled off half of what they had done by just winging it, or so it was speculated. So, Yagura figured the best way to handle the Ghosts was to completely overwhelm with the element of surprise and sheer power.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

No sooner had the Seals gone off, no sooner did Arashi's muscles coil and release the pent up energy to propel him into motion, then was there a mighty crash. The sound and shockwaves hadn't even finished dissipating through the hideout before Arashi felt his heart constrict as too many thoughts and theories went through his head.

' _Move! MOVE!_ _ **MOVE**_ _~!'_

Those were three main ones.

Arashi rounded the corner of the hallway and came face to face with his worst fear ever: there, in the main room, was what could only be described as a demon: it was a humanoid figure on all fours, with bulbous limbs and a bulbous body, all of it reminisce of a turtle. Two large, blank white eyes stared at Arashi.

On the Jinchuuriki's three tails were the impaled bodies of Yūwaku, Bullock, and Sukina, their spines destroyed, and their organs being cooked by the hot, corrosive chakra of the Three-Tails.

Arashi completely broke at the sight, and he fell to his knees, completely numb. He was only vaguely aware of his family members' corpses being flicked away like trash, and Yagura powering down to reveal the false image of a young man. Right now, Arashi's mind was occupied with how fitting this was.

His squad, known for ruthlessly slaughtering their targets and anyone around, leaving no survivors, known for casually killing mighty people and powerful shinobi, making it look _easy_ because of a good plan and great execution…should be killed so easily and so carelessly themselves, their bodies desecrated.

Arashi's eyes swam around, seeing his dead family. There were not peaceful looks on their faces, but looks of twisted pain, agony, regret, and shock. Yagura had come in too fast and too strong, striking before their brains could even comprehend what had happened.

They had never stood a chance against the Fourth Mizukage.

Such was the power of a Jinchuuriki.

Oh, sure, if they had more time, more warning, more time to plan and set things up properly, the five Ghosts could've had Yagura's head on a plate before breakfast. Well, Shin'en could've had the man's entire body neatly arranged in a buffet thanks to his unfair demigod powers….And speaking of unfair, this whole situation.

Here they were, about to pack up and leave this continent forever behind, absolving themselves of sin to pursue a better life, and goddammit here they were all dead.

Not even a clean, honorable death, but a messy and violent one when they got caught with their pants down.

Then again, considering how they operated, perhaps this death was fair after all.

Arashi felt cool metal against his neck, and it grounded him back to reality. On his knees, he glowered defiantly at Yagura. "When Shin'en finds out about this, there is no force on Earth, in the Pure World, or in Yomi that will save you from him."

Yagura, feeling cruel and vindictive, leaned down the length of his hook staff, and said, "It was Shin'en that told me where to find you."

As his eyes widened, Arashi suddenly couldn't feel his body anymore.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Shin'en awoke, he felt outrageously groggy. His sense weren't working properly, but he could tell he was in a messy, dirty alley, and there something going on just around the corner, based on what he could hear. So, he staggered to his feet and started walking to where the light at the end of the alley was, and where the noise was.

He rounded the corner, and unfortunately, could not see what was going on. He was too short, you see, and the crowd too tall. So, he began pushing his way through, placing a hand on people's sides in a gentle touch so they would move. When he got to the front of the crowd, and looked up, his sense instantly cleared out and his heart stopped.

 _BUH-BUM_

Arashi's head impaled on a pike.

 _BUH-BUM_

Bullock's head on a pike.

 _BUH-BUM._

Yūwaku's head on a pike.

 _BUH-BUM_

Sukina's head on a pike.

 _BUH-BUM_

 _Inside Shin'en's mind, there was a kanji there. This was the kanji for "happiness."_

Percy started to hyperventilate as he saw his family's head mounted before him like trophies. They were the real deal, he could tell, and everything was thrown off by the serene, peaceful looks on all of their faces.

 _The kanji started to break apart, cracks beginning to snake their way about._

Percy didn't understand. They had been about to leave forever, put away their memories of this horrible place and this horrible war and move on to a better life. They were right on the precipice of becoming _good_ people, of changing their ways and making themselves better.

 _The kanji broke apart entirely, and those pieces reformed into a new kanji: sorrow._

Dozens of memories started to flow through Shin'en's mind. Memories of him and Arashi sitting on the floor, surrounded by scrolls and ink, with Arashi teaching him about the Sealing Arts.

 _The "sorrow" kanji began its own destabilization._

Memories of him and Bullock fishing together, and having contests to see who could weave the better design with ninja wire.

 _The kanji cracked, chips starting to float away._

Memories of him and Yūwaku; that time she had gotten drunk and tried to get into his pants. The times she went off the deep end on her son's birthday, and he had gone in to comfort her. And the time she had come back from an informant run, dressed as an infant due to the informant's sick method of acquiring payment.

 _The kanji was mostly dissolved now, just barely holding a semblance of form._

Then the final, most painful memories: him and Sukina. Listening to music together, helping to organize her collage, and all the countless times they would get on top of the hideout together to share a smoke under the stars.

And then Percy saw Yagura of the Three-Tails, looking right at him with a vicious smirk, and the demigod made the connection that it was the Mizukage that had performed this unforgiveable act.

 _The kanji for "sorrow" completely broke down and formed into yet a new kanji: fury._

 _BUH-BUM_

The world went totally silent as Percy's hair stood straight up and his pupils morphed into Greek omegas.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Yūrei. The Ghosts of the Bloody Mist. Regarded as the most brutal, effective, and ruthless band of mercenaries of all time, they have finally me their end, with justice being served.**_

 _ **Or has it?**_

 _ **The fragile heart of lone boy breaks and screams in anguish.**_

 _ **Next time on**_ **Backup Plan: Blood War—**

Awakening Pt. 3: A Demigod's Broken Heart


	49. Awakening Pt 3: A Demigod's Fury

_Awakening Pt. 3: A Demigod's Fury_

 _ **The final battle of the Blood War starts almost as quickly as it begins.**_

 _ **Shin'en's sorrow turned to fury at seeing Y**_ _ **ūrei's heads mounted on pikes due to Yagura sends him into his most powerful form, and all the world trembles.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yagura watched it happen in crystal-clear, high definition, slow motion. He saw Shin'en there in the crowd, and he was going to add the boy's head to his collection to complete the set. But then the boy's hair stood up and his eyes changed.

Then everything went straight to Hell.

There was a wave of emerald green chakra that washed away in all directions. The surrounding people were instantly turned to charred skeletons from the heat, an those further away were knocked away by the shockwave first, and then burned by the chakra second. There was a bright, blinding light, and Yagura had enough presence of mind to start invoking the Three-Tails' chakra to protect his face, causing his skin to peel away, and not a moment too soon, because suddenly something roughly the size of a baseball hit him square in the nose with all the power of a downhill freight train times ten thousand.

Amidst the burning, searing pain originating from his face, and the agonizing ringing in his skull, and the jarring impacts from slamming into everything under the sun on his way to wherever, Yagura was quite glad to be away from Shin'en's tantrum, because now he had time to run very far away from the demigod and hopefully stay alive for a few more decades.

Meanwhile, back in the Hidden Mist, it looked like a low grade atom bomb had gone off, with half the village being destroyed, and the telltale mushroom cloud, only it was emerald green, instead of fiery orange and smoke black.

The cause of that devastation had already left the area, but the eyeless hurricane hadn't. In fact, the unnatural storm was growing at an insane rate, having already blanketed the mainland of the Land of Water, and was surging outward in all directions, seeking (and nearly succeeding) in its quest to cover the whole of the Great Nations.

Back with Yagura, covered in his Version 2 cloak, noted that he was in the delta exactly fifty miles away from his village, meaning that little bastard had hit him in the face with enough power to send fifty miles down the way in almost a straight line. Yagura took merely a tenth of a second to process that, before he promptly dove into the water, causing it to instantly bubble and hiss, and go shooting away as fast as he could go.

It was not fast enough.

Shin'en came crashing down directly on top of Yagura, shooting right through the water to nail the Mizukage directly in the middle of his shell. The impact wave caused nearly the whole delta to explode in a tidal wave of sand and water.

However, even though the impact had brought with it such destruction, Yagura had been…barely phased. Like he had just been hit in the back with a particularly fast basketball. As such, his mind was not occupied with pain, but with retaliation. The Version 2 state was still just a covering of chakra, just like the Version 1, and so, like the Version 1, it could be molded and shaped according to his will.

A chakra hand snapped up and grabbed Shin'en's heal, and then cracked like a whip to send the boy flying off. Yagura made a quick Tailed-Beast Bomb and released it, hitting Shin'en square in his chest, making the demigod go shooting away from the combined forces of the throw and the explosion.

But, like how Yagura had been barely phased by Shin'en's drop on him, Shin'en had hardly been phased by taking a Tailed-Beast Bomb point blank, and as soon as he hit the distant water of the gulf, he was flying back in the other direction, only instead of a humanoid thing covered in black and red chakra, he was zooming right up to the face of one very, very angry Tailed-Beast.

Completely undaunted by that development, Shin'en struck Isobu right in the gigantic turtle's cheek, eliciting a thunder crack from nature, and a little jerk of the head from the chakra monster, his mass and armor providing ample protection, even against the Awakened demigod's might, emboldened by the drenching rain water no less.

Shin'en was indeed incredibly powerful, but so were the Tailed-Beasts.

Isobu snapped his back, throwing Shin'en away, and he also brought one of his tails down with tremendous force, creating a blast of wind that once again further sent Shin'en flying away, which only served to increase his very unstable emotions.

Repeating the strategy employed by his Jinchuuriki, Isobu created a quick Tailed-Beast Bomb and released it, only his jutsu was literally a thousand times bigger than the softball-sized round Yagura had conjured, and so its yield was also a thousand times stronger, not that it did anything truly damaging to Shin'en, what with how much chakra he was outputting around himself as a natural shield and the constant down poor continually revitalizing him.

But it did send him flying ten miles away and out in to the ocean, which wasn't really all that bad.

Isobu rolled into a ball and took off rolling so fast that through sheer speed alone, not even using his chakra, he was able to stay above the waves.

Shin'en soaked in saltwater, kneaded his chakra into the ocean and created a very powerful monster. In Ancient Greek he said: **"** **Thirteen-Headed Dragon Jutsu.** **"**

Just like months from this point, the jutsu took the form of thirteen massively long and thick draconian necks and heads, with glowing red lights shining where the eyes were.

Shin'en saw the gigantic sphere heading towards him, and with his mind focused purely on violently killing Yagura instead of intelligently killing Yagura, like simply yanking Isobu down under the waves and ripping him apart, Shin'en instead molded Gale chakra into his dragon, and shot thirteen beams over the surface of the ocean.

Isobu displayed incredible agility for something his size, especially while rolling in a ball, weaving around every laser, and he kept on spinning forward.

Shin'en let a roar tear from his throat that was perfectly timed with booming of overhead thunder just as lightning flashed, illuminating this great battle, like something out of myth: a gigantic, three-tailed turtle fighting against an equally gigantic dragon comprised of thirteen heads, with the whole of the ocean as its body, and the whole of the storm as its wings.

The dragon surged forward just as Isobu neared, but the Tailed-Beast pulled a fast one and dove just as the lasers were fired. He popped up behind the dragon and fired a Tailed-Beast Bomb almost point blank, but Shin'en's power was great, and he was able to get his whole jutsu instantly turned around, commanding thousands of gallons of water with barely any effort at all, _and_ mold his chakra fats enough to release a counterfire.

Where Isobu's attack was one and done, Shin'en's was continuous, and so when the two jutsu met, there was a grand explosion, and the blast cloud almost dissipated thanks to the stream of lasers.

Isobu dove once again, and this time launched his Tailed-Beast Bomb from under the waves, which caused the water to sizzle and boil on contact. Instead of offering a return fire, Shin'en instead had his dragon's necks simply move out of the way and let the jutsu go flying off into the sky behind him, where it detonated in a dazzling display of light.

Then Isobu popped out from below the surface, and instead of firing a single projectile, he instead fired off a buckshot-style barrage consisting of no less than a hundred individual shots. He dove back under.

Shin'en, using a single head for this one, molded his chakra and fired off a Laser Circus consisting of the exact same number of projectiles heading for him, and using the super precision afforded by the great boost in ability that came from the rain and from saltwater, was able to blow every one of Isobu's little mini attacks clean out of the sky.

And then Isobu popped up again, and fired his attack, and Shin'en countered. The pattern began anew, and repeated several times, with Isobu popping his head up at random places, using his chakra and natural water affinity to dart around under the ocean's surface with almost supernatural speed and agility.

And Shin'en got fed up with the practice very quickly.

With a growl that turned into a howl, he made all thirteen of his dragon's heads angle straight up and fire a massive umbrella of a Laser Circus, that went climbing high, high, high…and then go arcing down in every direction for a mile and a half radius.

Each laser struck the ocean's surface and instantly blew up in an explosion that would've leveled a mansion.

Essentially, Shin'en just broiled the ocean.

The demigod didn't see the Three-Tails anywhere, and so he directed his senses down to the waters below, and he found the Tailed-Beast in the depths, having no doubt dived there when he saw the rain of lasers.

" _ **Get up here!"**_ Shin'en roared in a distorted voice.

Instead of simply using the water to haul Isobu to the surface, he instead leapt down from the crown of his central dragon head and went spearing through the water. Now, if he had been anyone else, seeing a massive shadow outlined against the inky depths, a massive shadow with a great big glowing circle where its eye might have been, he might've been absolutely terrified.

Who wouldn't, in such a situation?

But Shin'en was emotionally unstable, the son of the sea god, and wholly committed to the singular act of _killing_ the Tailed-Beast, and so, when Isobu angled up and put the full brunt of his killer intent at Shin'en, a kind of killing intent so powerful that armies of lesser peoples would've died from the terror instilled by such a malicious aura, the demigod was completely unphased.

If anything, he made even madder.

How _dare_ this turtle be angry at _him_ , he who had suffered so, had seen so many horrible things, done so many horrible things, and, right on the precipice of beginning a new, peaceful life with those he loved most, had that life ripped away along with those loved ones?

How _dare_ that turtle!?

Shin'en shot past Isobu and grabbed the Tailed-Beast's tail, and then went rocketing towards the surface at such an incredible speed that the weight of the water combined with the g-force was too much for even the Three-Tails to overcome. The demigod broke the surface, a tiny, glowing beacon of raging emotion, dragging behind him the biggest amphibian ever created.

Then, with nothing but the sheer, incredible physical strength that was brought forth by the power of Demigod Mode, of the Awakening, Shin'en _hurled_ Isobu right up into the storm cell. The Tailed-Beast tumbled end over end, completely helpless in the face of his ascent.

With his vision all wonky, he wasn't able to see as appropriately as he should've been, though his one eye didn't help anything. However, his sensory abilities, limited as they were, were still very easily able to pick up the massive surge and subsequent discharge of chakra below, and he was able to curl into a defensive ball to protect his soft underside.

Each of the thirteen beams of laser-like Gale chakra struck home and propelled Isobu through the sky with such force that the air displacement created a hole in the hurricane, and the Tailed-Beast kept going straight on up without any sign of stopping.

Shin'en crouched very low on top of his dragon's central head, and the glow around him dimmed as he drew in as much chakra as he could, channeling so much into his legs that his muscles started to bulge in a horrid, grotesque manner…and then he pushed off.

The shockwave was so powerful that it completely blasted apart the Thirteen-Headed Dragon Jutsu, and the _sonic boom_ made as Shin'en propelled himself up at no less that Mach 4 was arguably one of the loudest sounds ever to grace the Great Nations, barring the explosions of Tailed-Beast Bombs.

The lasers propelling Isobu quickly lost cohesion and fizzed out, but the momentum was still there, and it took gravity nearly a whole minute to get its hold back, and Isobu had merely a moment to think to himself:

' _Oh, shit…'_

And then he was plummeting down to Earth with flames licking away at his sides.

Shin'en, as the Three-Tails went flying past him, went flying up, up, up, going so high that even his strong lungs started hurting, before he too started to fall. An aura of chakra surged around him, serving as a natural heatshield. There was a tail that followed in his wake, giving the appearance of a falling, emerald comet.

Down far below, Isobu had spread his stubby arms and tails out, making his descent just a little slower thanks to an increased surface area for the wind to slam into. Isobu angled himself and fired a Tailed-Beast Bomb. Shin'en spun out of its path and it blew up behind him.

The shock and heatwave rattled against his bones.

Isobu went tumbling due to Newton's Third Law, but he righted himself and fired another blast. Shin'en once again spun out of its way, the volatile chakra blowing up behind him.

They were both hurtling towards the ground, both of them having broke the sound barrier long ago. Isobu's sheer mass had him falling faster, and Shin'en was propelling himself down with the chakra streaming out of him. The sound of the wind blazing past his ears almost hurt.

Isobu continued firing blast after blast of chakra, and Shin'en kept rolling and spinning away from each one, the subsequent detonations pushing him down harder and faster.

Closer and closer.

When he felt he was close enough, Shin'en unsealed the Lightning Fangs in reverse grip, and they instantly reacted with the massive amount of chakra their wielder was outputting. Down below, Isobu's lone eye widened at what he perceived to be some kind of deadly, radiant, majestic heavenly eagle, and for the second time in his thousand years of living…he felt fear.

The first time was when he was much younger and had made the mistake of calling Kurama a daddy's boy, but that wasn't important.

Isobu pulled as much chakra as he could without killing himself, gathering all of it into a single point, creating a Tailed-Beast Bomb even bigger than his whole body. Then, he released it. He expected that one to be it. It was too wide to dodge, and so big that its blast radius would no doubt encompass an area that Shin'en was still in, frying the demigod.

And then the unthinkable happened: that massive jutsu was cut clean down the middle.

The two halves went shooting higher in the sky and blew up so far above that they were barely felt.

Isobu let out a howl when the hottest, sharpest thing he had ever experienced in all his life suddenly bit into his body, starting at his right shoulder.

Shin'en yelled with everything that he had as he put everything that he had into his arm, channeling Gale chakra through the length of his sword to increase both its reach and cutting power. With great effort, he swung his arm down and kept on going through the tremendous resistance of Isobu's shell.

For a time, it seemed almost as if the turtle was going to outmatch the demigod in this contest, but it was not to be.

Shin'en's arm finished its arc and the boy went flying past the two halves of the Tailed-Beast. The cleaved body lost form and became a violent mass of bubbling red chakra before completely destabilizing and lighting up the sky with one of the brightest explosions ever to grace the planet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With the Three-Tails' violent going-away bash over, Shin'en's emotions fizzed out. He lost the aura surrounding him, and his hair became limp once more, and his pupils shifted back to their regular little black dots.

And he kept on falling.

And he was tired.

And he heard very angry screaming over the sound of the wind rushing past his ears.

Shin'en's eyes popped open and his fatigued body was instantly revitalized at seeing none other than Yagura himself soaring through the air, fully clothed, hook staff in hand. Shin'en didn't understand how, other than Yagura must have somehow detached himself from the Three-Tails' body before it blew up, or that whole explosion had been a ruse in the first place, but it didn't matter.

What mattered was that Yagura was still alive, and now Shin'en had the opportunity to beat the man to death with his bare hands.

The air battle was remarkably short, not even lasting for five seconds, but that five seconds involved furious exchanges of punches and kicks, before they slammed into the ocean. It was all over from that point. Through the salt water, Shin'en was completely revitalized.

He punched Yagura so hard that the man went flying out of the water like he had been shot from a canon, and he crashed down on the beach of an island. He received to respite, because Shin'en came flying out right after him, landed on top of his chest, and began to bludgeon his skull with relentless fury.

Yagura died soon after from blunt force cranial trauma, but Shin'en didn't stop.

He didn't stop when the skin on his knuckles broke open. He didn't stop when his bones started to crack. He didn't stop when the skin of Yagura's skull started peeling away to reveal the red muscles underneath. Shin'en didn't stop hitting even when Yagura's entire head had caved in, and the skull fragments were being pounded into his brain matter to create the world's goriest soup.

Shin'en was sobbing now, sobbing at so many things, and all that energy that surged through him from the salt water had been burned out. Above, the fireball that was the Three-Tails was close to dissipating, but it still provided its wrongful light.

Shin'en threw his head back and screamed until he passed out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The war was officially over.

The Water Daimyo graciously welcomed Mei Terumi as the Fifth Mizukage, and the Reconstruction Era began. The Hidden Mist was in shambles, and bodies by the hundreds were being pulled out of the rubble every day, as whatever had happened _that_ day had done a massive number on the village.

It was generally understood that it had been the demigod resurfacing after six years to finally bring divine justice to the tyrant Yagura, and those caught had either been wicked sinners or the pure few that had been sent on to the Pure World.

In this gigantic mess of a country with people beaten down by so many different things, it was just easier to accept that ludicrousy.

However, truth be told, the death toll was hardly a dampening factor in the massive wave of happiness that surged across the Land of Water with news of Yagura's end. There were parties, celebrations, and small rebellions that were squashed without mercy by Mei's forces. It seemed like warmth and light had finally returned after almost ten years of war and conflict.

But, in one small area of the Land of Water, there was nothing but quiet sorrow…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a beautiful sunny day with a cloudless sky and a perfect warm temperature, a small little breeze blowing through the vibrant green trees, bringing along the smell of fresh air. Birds chirped and sang their little hearts for the first time in forever, bees fluttered from flower to flower, fish splashed around in streams, and everything was good and happy.

And it was all _wrong_.

Shin'en, in full uniform, walked into the ruined front area of the hideout, destroyed from Yagura's surprise attack. He was in a state of numb delirium, not quite comprehending what was going on or what he was doing, but still cognizant enough to realize where he was and what he was looking at.

With slow but firm steps, he traversed the peaceful halls of the daimyo's forgotten summer home, friendly rays of sun streaming in through the windows.

Shin'en walked past Yūwaku's room, and he noticed how neat and clean everything was, and he noticed the discarded package of pull-ups on the floor. He recalled then, a time long passed in which it was Sukoshi's birthday, and Yūwaku had holed herself up in her room for the whole day, drinking enough alcohol to kill ten normal men.

Arashi had strongly advised against, claiming that she got very, very strange on this day, but Shin'en had gone into her room anyway to comfort her however he could. That entailed surrendering every shred of pride he had to give himself to Yūwaku's drunken and delirious fantasies, which involved, but was not limited to, breastfeeding, potty training, and learning colors and shapes.

Shin'en was so numb to everything right now that the recollection, which normally brought forth and blush and a shudder, did nothing to him. He just remembered that the next time Sukoshi's birthday came up, Yūwaku had been just fine, with that one day being exactly what she had needed to grant her closer.

Shin'en kept walking through the halls, and eventually came across Bullock's room. It was neat and clean just like Yūwaku's, looking exactly like someone had made it up for a long getaway. A spool of wire was left on one of the bedposts, and it reminded Shin'en of the time he and the green-haired man had gone fishing, and they ended up catching a marlin the size of a pine tree.

Bullock had wanted to kill the giant fish, cook it, and eat it, but Shin'en had been vehemently opposed to doing any of that to a creature that was begging to be let go so he could go see his fish family again. Being a son of Poseidon granted the ability to speak with fish, after all, and it also came with the psychological inability to allow harm to be brought any kind of sea or equine life.

So Bullock cut the line and let the marlin go.

Seeing that spool of wire had triggered the memory because that was the same kind of line used to catch that big fish.

Shin'en traversed the hall further, going past his own room, but he didn't even turn his head to look inside. Instead, he kept on going till he got to Arashi's room, and the revelation that it was barren didn't mean a thing to Shin'en. He just stood at the door and looked at the family painting from a distance for a long time, before he turned away.

The last room he visited, and he didn't know if was by sheer coincidence or unconscious decision, and he didn't care to know which, was Sukina's room. Like the others, it was completely neat and organized. Why Arashi had insisted on tidying the place up even though this was literally the last time they were going to be in it, none of the Ghosts knew, but they did as their leader instructed and made sure their beds were made and their floors were picked up.

Sukina's had windows facing East, and so, with it still being morning, the sun's happy and joyous light streamed right on in through the thin curtains. It provided the illumination necessary for Shin'en to see the collage on the wall, and he went to it. He traced a finger over the pictures, but he was still just so, so numb, and his heart remained at a steady beat even through all the flashbacks of when these pictures were taken and all the times he had helped Sukina arrange the pictures.

And he hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to any of them.

Shin'en made his way back to the front room, and that's when his legs gave way under him. Instead of springing up or catching himself, he let gravity take him down, and he just laid there, totally uncaring that he had just fallen and didn't do a thing to prevent it.

The sun continued its journey across the sky…and then the moon rose and set…and the sun rose and set…and the moon rose and set…and the sun rose and set once again…and the moon rose and set once again…three days. When the sun started to rise on the fourth day, its tentative rays just barely touching Shin'en, he twitched for the first time in those three days.

And his mind was just halfway clear.

He got back on his feet and then kneeled, tracing his finger in a specific pattern across the floor until a Sealing formula sprang to life. A voice was then heard through his mask.

"Your command?"

It was a woman's voice, and Shin'en suspected that it was the voice of Arashi's wife.

"Initiate self-destruct processes. Authorization: Yūrei's Youngest."

"Authorization verified. Command in progress."

Shin'en walked away from the hideout, leaving it for the very last time. He didn't turn back when the Sealing formula turned into fire and set everything ablaze. He didn't turn back when he two all of their rooms were burning. He didn't turn back when he knew that Yūwaku's son's organs and pull-ups were being immolated. He didn't turn back when he knew that spool of wire was melting. He didn't turn back when he knew that Arashi's family painting was being turned to ashes.

And he didn't turn back when he knew Sukina's collage, filled with so many cherished memories, perished.

There was a rumbling through the forest when the secondary and tertiary functions of the Seal activated, causing a complete collapse in structure, followed by the detonations of explosives to send the entire house tumbling down the cliffside.

The fires created by the Seal raged everywhere, striking the forest around Shin'en ablaze for miles. Chaos was unleashed as animals ran for their lives and birds took flight, trees toppled and burned, and a storm churned overhead, this one truly natural. The searing heat did nothing to Shin'en, thanks to his natural heat tolerance and uniform, and the choking smoke did nothing to his lungs due to the filters in his mask.

But, where he seemed calm and in control on the outside, on the inside he was having a complete meltdown as two and a half years of good memories all came flooding back to him in the face of what he had just done, and he cried, and he stumbled, and he fell once more, and this time a burning tree toppled and crashed straight down upon him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The fires raged wildly, with a massive plume of smoke choking the view of the sky. It was so high, in fact, that Mei, from her refurbished office as Fifth Mizukage, could see it, and she knew the only important instillation in that direction, and it brought tears to her eyes because she knew what was happening, and she felt tremendous amounts of guilt for her part in it.

And she hated the Third Raikage, the true mastermind behind Shin'en's pain and suffering, for it had been _him_ that decided to place Shin'en with Yūrei, knowing the boy would get attached, for it had been _him_ that placed the underlying Seal in the Black Lightning Tattoo, the very same Seal that he used to take control of Shin'en and betray Yūrei to Yagura.

And Ay did all this with the goal in mind of emotionally shocking Shin'en to such a degree that he became a completely loyal and devoted follower without a conscious or a mind of his own, easily manipulated and completely unable to do anything about because his body didn't produce the chemicals needed to stimulate emotions.

But it all backfired.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en stood tall, throwing the tree off him. Behind his mask, his eyes were hard, narrow, and focused, and his mind was clear and crisp. Effectively, he was back. The entirety of him was back. The drive, the hatred, the goal, only it was now all so strongly emboldened by the desire for justice in the name of Yūrei, his second family after the orphans and the matron, and walked forward through the fire and the flames and the smoke, and all that fell upon him instantly broke apart.

Any bushes or piles in his way were destroyed. Any thistles that grabbed at him were snapped. Any pits or breaks in the ground were overcame.

 _All_ obstacles were beaten without hesitance.

And Shin'en emerged. He exited the inferno that was the forest, flames licking away at him as he left their longing, malicious embrace. He emerged from an entire book of horrors, he exited a country ripped asunder by war. He emerged from Hell, and he exited a bloody past that had left its scars on him.

Shin'en rolled up his sleeve and saw the tattoo on his forearm, and he beheld its number:

11,311.

He felt around his neck and pulled the necklace Yugito had gifted him for his ninth birthday, the pearl called the Sea's Tear. It had once been an illustrious piece, but now it was dull, dirty, cracked and chipped. Shin'en's eyes became downcast at the deplorable state his necklace was in, but he tucked in back under his shirt and strode forward towards the surf of the beach.

He became like vapor just before he reached the water, and travelled the long distance to the office of the Mizukage, where he said his parting words to her, and he ignored her condolences and apologies. Instead he was asked a favor, a situation had arisen in the Land of Waves, and Mei wanted it to be fixed.

And so Shin'en fixed it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Is it finally over? Have we seen all the fragments?_

 _Not yet._

 _There's_ _more_ _? Why did you let this happen to him? You're his patron! You're supposed to be like his dad! Dad's don't let their kids go through this much pain!_

 _I know. There's nothing I can do to excuse my failures. We're almost done. Just four more fragments to collect, four more memories to see._

 _What are we going to see in these ones? Percy setting fire to a maternity ward? Blowing up a refugee boat? Something else horrible that you let him do?_

 _Nothing of the sort. Instead, these memories are happy memories…mostly._

 _Mostly?_

 _They are happy, and they are also sad._

 _What do you mean?_

 _Watch, and see._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And that is how the Blood War ends. The next four chapters will be things Shin'en did with the twins, and things he did with Asteria and Annabeth, and then we're done with the Memory Arc. After that, it's the closing chapters that end this story and set up the third book.**_

 _ **However, the next eight weeks of school have started up and now I have Cal-2 and an online course on my plate, so these six or so chapters may be late.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review, please.**_


	50. Shin'en Being a Dad

_Shin'en Being a Dad_

 _ **These memories are from when Shin'en was with the twins of the other dimension, where he's effectively their dad. These are more fluffy and humorous than the Blood War chapters, which intentionally creates a foil from the dark, edgy, and grit to the light, happy, and soft.**_

 _ **Almost, anyway.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en spent two weeks with the twins, teaching them as he thought it was needed. He didn't like to think of himself as their dad, and yet there were many times over those two weeks in that he felt immense paternal pride. When that happened, he did think of himself as a dad, and that made him somewhat happy that he got to skip out on some of the grodier things that came with early parenthood, such as vomit all over the place, dirty diapers, and runny noses.

However, jumping in as a parent for a couple of seven-year-olds had its set of downs.

Such as a never-ending slew of questions.

"Light, what does that say?"

"Light, am I doing this correctly?"

"Light, there's blood in my poop. Am I sick?"

Shin'en's eyes dimmed slightly. "Yes, Percy, just a little bit."

"Light, can I have this?"

"Light, can we go do this?"

"Light-"

"Light-"

"Light-"

"LightLightLightLightLight-"

Meanwhile, Ryuk was hovering above Shin'en laughing raucously at seeing the overpowered demigod boil in annoyance with the questionnaire onslaught at the hands of Percy and Persephone.

And so, like all parents did at some point, Shin'en scheduled a few hours one day that the twins were completely _not_ his responsibility.

"Today's exercise is one of social interaction," the last Ghost said to the twins. The trio was standing at the mouth of a playground teeming with other children. "Your goal is to make three friends each today, so a total of six new friends."

"Why?" Percy asked with a screwed up face, completely uncomprehending this exercise.

"So that the both of you become accustomed to killing people that are close to you," Shin'en said gravely.

The twins looked at him, horrified at the prospect of making a friend only to kill them.

"I'm kidding," Shin'en said with a smirk under his collar. "Both of you go have fun."

' _And don't bother me for the next five hours.'_

Persephone hesitated, "But-"

Percy grabbed her arm with a squeal and yanked her away with him.

"Aren't they just adorable?" Ryuk asked.

"Very much so."

Shin'en approached a park bench, and his sheer aura was enough to make the young couple sitting there scramble away. The son of Poseidon sat down and reclined with a happy sigh. He wasn't worried about any monsters coming to attack, for there was far too much human in the air. Not necessarily bad human, like Gabe, but just human.

So, for literally the first ten in seven days, Shin'en closed his eyes and drifted into a peaceful little nap…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Excuse me, _ma'am_."

…only for it to be ruined what felt like just minutes later, but the position of the sun told Shin'en it had been about eighty minutes.

Standing before him was irate woman, overweight, glasses on her face, her short hair pulled into a small sprig of a ponytail atop her head, and her clothes didn't fit correctly because her body shape was too off. She was clearly the haughty type of person, believing some fact about herself made her entitled to privilege.

Shin'en noted how there was a sniffling, snobbish child with the woman, clearly her offspring by sheer mass alone, facial features second. The lack of a present male told Shin'en this was either a divorce situation, for a variety of reasons, or the husband was at work. Shin'en also noted Percy and Persephone right next to the woman, both of them looking irritated.

Ryuk was also there, red eyes glowing and lips pulled back into a grin at the prospect of entertainment.

There was also the "ma'am" comment that had Shin'en thinking he should cut his hair, but he also shouldn't because his body was still damaged, and in the Great Nations he was literally the most wanted man, and the long hair aided with the desired feminine appearance so that anyone actively looking for him that saw him would write him off as a female and keep right on going.

"Yes?" Shin'en asked in his deep voice, which immediately rattled the woman and her child, knocking them both off whatever game they had going.

"Your-" the woman's voice broke, and so she cleared her throat and regained her haughty composure. "Your children insulted my son by making comments about his weight. They are very rude."

She said this with an expectation in her voice.

Shin'en raised a brow, irritated that his nap was interrupted by this baboon. He looked at the twin. "Don't make anymore simple observations about how much fat a person has on their bones. They clearly have impulse control issues and should be pitied, not ridiculed. Now run along, you two."

The twins did exactly that with devious little smiles on their faces.

The woman gaped at him. "What kind of parent are you that you would let your kids get away with being rude to other children like that?"

"One of a kind." Shin'en's eyes glowed a soft, faint red, and suddenly the woman went rigid, her son adopting a confused look. "However, I think the better question here what kind of a parent are you that you would let your… _son_ , over there…become so morbidly obese at such a young age? I think the best solution is that you should take what family you have on a road trip off the side of a cliff so that gene pool may be purified."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea," the woman said robotically. "I will go and do that immediately, my lord."

"Excellent."

She went away with an iron grip on her son's arm, already pulling out her flip phone to set up a mass homicide.

"That was petty," Ryuk said. "Using your Sharingan to make her go kill her whole family just because she interrupted your nap."

"Write me a ten-page essay explaining your choice, using proper MLA citations."

"No."

"Then shut up, Ryuk."

Shin'en closed his eyes and tried to finish his nap, only to not even fall asleep this time before he was interrupted by another woman with a wounded child.

"Excuse me, but your kids injured mine and I expect proper payment, or I'll sue."

Shin'en's eyes popped open, bloodshot and infuriated. He looked at the twins. "What happened?"

"We were playing tag," Persephone started.

"And I was It," Percy picked up, and they began their back-and-forth sentence thing.

"And Percy went after him-"

"-and I tagged him-"

"-and he got pushed too hard on accident-"

"-and he hit his face on one of the poles."

"That's not how my son tells it," the woman said. "He said that he and his friends were trying to play a game of tag and these two wanted to join, and when he said no, they pushed him. I expect there to be punishment and payment. Look what they did to my son's face!"

The kid's nose was clearly broken and his right eye was swollen shut.

"What a tragedy," Shin'en said dryly. "It reminds of this homeless veteran I saw on the street the other day. He was missing most of his nose and his right ear had been cut off. He had stumps for legs and his hair had grown out to past his shoulders. I'm sure he'd be very touched to know that the people he sacrificed so much for are disrespecting his service by complaining about a black eye and a broken nose."

The woman was at a complete loss of words after that one.

"How about this," Shin'en suggested, and he snapped his fingers. "Since your son is so obviously beyond repair, how about you go and put him to sleep with the fishes and make a new son with you're the man you're cheating on your husband with?"

"An excellent idea, my lord. I'll go execute it right away."

The twins blinked at what had just happened.

"The Mist," Shin'en said. "That'll be our topic this evening. For now, go and find something to do by yourselves that doesn't involve anyone else, like the swings, or the seesaw."

"Okay!" they chirped before scampering off.

"You are just a model citizen today," Ryuk said.

"Just doing my part."

Shin'en closed his eyes for the third time, and was interrupted a third time by an entire host of angry parents. Shin'en tried to ignore them this time, pretending to be asleep so that maybe they'd leave him alone, but this time there were some dads in the group.

"Hey, _buddy_ ," and this man made the horrible mistake of grabbing Shin'en's cloak to try and jostle the demigod awake.

When might have called what happened next to be a low point in the Abyss' life, but he felt it was entirely reasonable to draw his sword and start cutting parents and children down left and right. Percy and Persephone stood off to the side with their heads tilted to their lefts, wincing periodically as someone was on the receiving end of a particularly brutal injury.

When Shin'en was done, he let out a singular huff and flicked his sword, getting all the blood off, before sliding it back in his sheath. Then he looked at the twins. "What, exactly, happened _this_ time?"

"We were on the swings," Percy started.

"And there's no rule saying we can only be on there for so long," Persephone picked up.

"And we didn't want to get off-"

"-and some other kids wanted to get on-"

"-but there's a lot more swings-"

"-so we told them to go swing on those-"

"-and they went to get their parents-"

"-and we ended up over here because they all wanted to talk with you," Persephone finished.

"And why did they wanted to talk with me?"

"Because they asked where our parents were, and you're the only one that applies," Persephone answered.

"Aw, isn't that sweet?"

"Shut up, Ryuk."

The twins blinked. "Who's Ryuk?"

"An annoying voice in my head that talks up a lot. Don't worry about him. He won't bother you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few days later, on the cusp of when it was almost time to drop the children off at Camp Half-Blood, Shin'en decided to treat the twins to a special dinner at a fine dining restaurant called the Garden Tavern.

"Light," Percy said uncomfortably, "there are lots of people here…"

"And they're all wearing fancy clothes," Persephone noted with an upturned nose.

"Indeed, they are. Take a look at yourselves."

So the twins did, and they were both shocked at what they saw. Gone were their t-shirts and shorts, and in their places were clothes mean for only the rich. Percy had on a little suit tailored for a seven-year-old, and Persephone had a little dress that went to her knees.

"Wow~," Percy gasped, feeling the material and noting that not only was it _real_ , it was still very comfortable.

Persephone was only slightly less thrilled, not totally liking the breeze between her legs.

"How did you do this, Light?" Percy asked.

"The Mist has the power to do more than just affect one's mind. In powerful enough hands, the Mist can alter reality itself. I have showed you the groundwork for Mist manipulation, and now it's up to the both of you to expand your prowess with it. Come, let's eat."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The twins might've struggled in school, what with their dyslexia hindering their performance and their ADHD making them act up and irritate the teachers, but they were far from stupid. Light talking to them about the Mist and how it could be used, and then telling them it was up to them to get better with it, all while coming to this fancy restaurant…the twins took all of this to mean that while they were here for a night out, this was also a training session.

Shin'en smirked underneath the collar of his cloak when he watched those little gears turn and arrive to the desired conclusion. Truth be told, he didn't have a buck on him at the moment, since all of his currency was still in ryō, the currency of the Shinobi World. So, his plan was for the twins to manipulate the Mist in such a way that all three of them got a free five-star meal.

He also planned for this to be a smooth night of simple fun, which of course meant that something was going to happen, and something _did_ in fact happen.

As Shin'en was sitting down, he just happened to look up and notice six individuals, with the oldest three looking about fourteen, the fourth looking about the twelve, the fifth about eight, and the youngest at six. He recognized those kids from the memories he had been privy to years back when he had to help Asteria fight Ares on the beach.

"Light, do you know those people?" Persephone asked, having seen the look on his face.

"Yes…both of you stay here and don't break something."

Shin'en didn't know why the Flock from _Maximum Ride_ was here in a _Percy Jackson and the Olympians_ dimension, especially because he was very positive this wasn't a crossover dimension, but he supposed that at this this point it didn't really matter.

They were here now, and he felt it his responsibility to keep things peaceful, especially because the manager of the place was heading over to the table, a few local police having entered the building to no doubt escort Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel away and to go phone their parents.

Shin'en took care of the police first, gliding across the floor to give them a quick glance in their eye to send them off to gorge themselves on donuts, before making his way to the table with the Flock. He supposed he could've just used genjutsu on the manager the same way he did the police, but he also supposed that his verbal skills could use some polishing after shirking them so many times in favor of his Sharingan cop out.

Besides, when in the proper mood, word games were fun.

"Look," he heard Max saying, "we have the means to pay, I don't see what the problem is."

"Neither do I," Shin'en said as approached, his voice carrying over the whole restaurant, bringing all the attention to him and the manager, a Mr. Rogers, according to the nameplate.

"Good evening, my name is Shin'en Yūrei. I'm an investor from Japan with an American father, and he taught me the accent."

He held his hand out to the manager for a shake, and when there was hesitance in the man's action, he said, "I understand that it is American custom that when two men greet each other they shake hands as a sign of cordiality and respect, yes?"

"Y-Yes…" Mr. Rogers reached out and shook Shin'en's hand.

"Now, I understand that all these wonderful citizens of New York have come here tonight with empty bellies that they desire filled by your excellent cuisine—I know that is why I and my niece and nephew over there here. I also understand that there's been a hold up and everyone is growing rather irate at the lack of service from such a reputable establishment…why is that, Rogers-sama?"

Now, Rogers was just a manager. He had worked his way up to this position with dedication, starting as a simple busboy. Granted, there might have been some unsavory decisions made along the way, but he was here…and he had zero experience with someone of Shin'en's caliber.

But he was aware of how no less than a hundred very rich people were all watching him, and the next words out of his mouth were going to determine what reviews they left on Yelp.

Which would determine if the owners of the restaurant kept him on as manager.

Mr. Rogers swallowed, his cool in the face of young teenagers having evaporated in the face of this Japanese investor.

"Ah, you see, Mr. Yūrei, these young ones here…ah…they…"

"Yes?"

"Well, they've ordered over three hundred dollars in food, and…they do have a credit card…but…"

"A 'butt' is something you sit upon, Rogers-sama. Now, if I understand correctly, you are preventing service for the rest of us hungry patrons due to the unusual circumstance of these young adults, who have made a large order while brandishing a credit card. I understand how one's immediate perception of this situation is that someone has made off with their rich parent's card, but have you not considered that maybe they are ordering for themselves and then getting several to-go orders for their parents, and are simply requesting all of their food at once so that they can leave when ready?"

Rogers visibly swallowed. "N-No…"

"Well, the way I see it, it matters not what the circumstance is, only that you have hungry patrons before you with an appropriate means to pay for their order, and you are denying them service on unfounded suspicion. If I were you, Rogers-sama, I would quit Delaying and instead get to cooking. Would that not be the most acceptable course of action in the face of so many guests that are quickly growing irate with these shenanigans?"

"I-I su-suppose…?"

"Correct, Rogers-sama." Shin'en placed a friendly hand on the man's shoulder and turned to where he was addressing the crowd at large. "Good evening everyone! On behalf of Mr. Rogers here, I apologize for this monstrous wait, and as a token of forgiveness and gesture of goodwill, one free drink to every adult here!"

The restaurant erupted into claps and cheers.

Mr. Rogers went as pale as the white suit he was wearing.

Shin'en turned a smile to the man. "You best get to mixing, Rogers-sama."

The manager scurried off to save his face and keep his guests happy.

"Thanks," Max said, though the suspicion in her voice was heavy.

The smile and present amicableness around Shin'en instantly disappeared when he turned to Max. "Do not _thank_ me, Maximum. I only did what I did to preserve what little sanctity there is in a New York night. Just keep your wings tucked and behave…" his eyes traveled up to Angel, who gulped and stiffened, "…and tell the child to keep her thoughts to herself, before I let her see something that'll have her pissing her bed for the rest of her life."

Shin'en spun on his heel and swished his cloak behind him.

When he sat back down with the twins, they were both starry-eyed. "That was cool~," they said in sync.

Dinner went off without a hitch after that. The twins executed a fantastic trick of the Mist to get them and Light out of the restaurant without having to pay a penny, and the Flock had their own nice evening without having to worry about Erasers or law enforcement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Light," Percy asked the next morning, "what's the difference between being smart, being intelligent, and being wise?"

The question was so out of the blue for someone like Percy, that Shin'en had to stop and let his brain reboot before he answered.

"Being smart applies to academics. If you're smart, then you know how to retain information that you learn in school. For example, being able to recall facts of history, how to work equations in math, how to write papers with effective words, etcetera. If you are intelligent, then you know how to problem solve. You can be placed in any situation, and work out how to use what's available to you to get out of that situation. You are practical. If you are wise, then you know who you are and you know about the world and the people in it, and are able to apply morals and ethics accordingly and correctly."

"Oh…are me and Sephy wise, smart, or intelligent?"

"Neither. You're both very dumb."

"Hey!"

"That's for horses."

Percy huffed. "Well-"

"That's a hole in the ground."

Percy stamped his foot. "You're a butt!"

Shin'en poked the little boy between his eyes and sent him falling to his rear.

"And now you're sitting on yours."

Percy growled, cheeks red but his eyes were sparkling. With a battle cry that was absolutely adorable with his seven-year-old voice, he launched himself at Light, who just grabbed the back of his shirt when he got in range and held him at arms' length.

Percy slipped out of his shirt, landed on the ground, and sprang forward. Shin'en threw the shirt in the child's face, making him stumble, and he put his leg out, which completed the downward topple. Still undeterred, Percy got up and threw his shirt, only he threw it off to the side, the movement instinctually drawing Shin'en's eyes, and the little demigod pounced.

Shin'en could've done no less than a thousand different things in that little increment in time, but he decided to let his younger counterpart have his victory after working at so hard.

Percy tackled Light off the log he was sitting on with a happy squeal, but his victory was short-lived as Light started rapping his fingertips against the sides of Percy's ribs, making him devolve into a fit of giggles until he begged for mercy.

Off to the side, Persephone stood there with her arms crossed, and she cleared her throat. "Boys are _so_ immature."

Light raised a brow. "I trust I don't need to remind you of your little _accident_ the other day, O Mature One."

Persephone flushed, and Percy's giggles didn't help.

"Sephy pooped her pants~, Sephy pooped her pants~!"

"I thought it was just going to be a fart!"

"But it wasn't, and your lack of experience in discerning between the need to pass gas and defecate is a clear indicator of immaturity."

"Yeah, well-" Persephone was a at a loss, and so she blew a raspberry.

Light lowered his brow and raised his other one. "Yes, _boys_ are the immature ones."

"They are!" Persephone insisted. "They have cooties, too!"

"Well, since boys have cooties, and you get cooties by touching boys, and we've touched each other-"

"Ooh, nasty!" Ryuk crowed.

"-you have cooties too!" Percy cheered.

Persephone's face reddened.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **After so much violence and emotional turmoil, it felt good to write something that didn't involve violence and emotional turmoil.**_

 _ **Just a little bit extra on Shin'en's time with the twins.**_

 _ **The**_ **Maximum Ride** _ **cameo isn't to be taken too seriously, as I just really like the series and wanted to put it in here. Think of it more as a nod to Asteria than anything else.**_

 _ **Speaking of, the next few chapters are going to be Shin'en with Asteria and Annabeth in**_ **Xenophobic** _ **, which truthfully, could be its own entire story, considering the events therein happen over the course of nine months, involving time in a high school setting and a grocery store.**_

 _ **But we are almost to the end and I want to get there myself, so there won't be too many events shown.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	51. Shin'en, High School God

_Shin'en, High School God_

 _ **This little mini arc will be two chapters, and I'll be performing something of a social experiment with this one, and it revolves around bashing.**_

 _ **I'll let you figure out what I'm getting at, but I'm sure you could figure it out beforehand.**_

 _ **Anyway, Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en didn't understand the education system of New York. From the system he was coming from, in which the curriculum of the Shinobi Academy was designed to introduce basic concepts in Year One, and build off of all those concepts from Year Two up to Year Six, working on throwing technique with kunai and shuriken, anatomy, knowledge of geography and flora, how to move chakra through your body, etc., all things critically necessary to the life of a shinobi, the New York system made no sense, especially this "high school" version.

The state of New York required incoming freshmen to pick an endorsement, like Nursing, STEM, Art, Business, or something else from a list of other things, all of which was just nothing more than a major…for high school.

Shin'en didn't think that was a bad concept, in fact, he thought it was great. High school was the age in which students started to grow up, becoming of age to have sex, get driver's licenses, get jobs, vote to have an impact on their country, enlist in the military, and it was the perfect staging area to begin developing a career with rudimentary information regarding your field.

Just _why_ it was required to have all this additional, _pointless_ information was beyond the Dragon Ghost of the Abyss.

It was required of students to have 24 credits to graduate, four in English, three in Social Studies, four in Math, four in Science, two PE, two Foreign Language, one Arts, and then four random electives, designed to give the students a sense of freedom and relief from the workload brought on by the "core" classes.

Of course, the "Project Graduation" process began all the way back in middle school, in the eighth grade, where students could get a jump on this process by engaging in Algebra and a selection of languages.

That was how Asteria and Annabeth had done things.

Now, in their senior year at Goode High School, they only had their last English class, which was Latin with Mr. Brunner, two electives, which they chose to be Astronomy and Office Aid, then there was lunch, then their final class, the final step in their chosen STEM endorsement, Practicum in STEM, a double-block period, and then that was it.

Asteria and Annabeth had double early release.

Which meant Shin'en also had double early release, as his high school schedule completely mirrored his charges'.

Shin'en was also not a religious person, as he came from the unfortunate dimension in which every myth was inherently true, and Annabeth had been trying to get him to attend her Sunday School for the past two months, to no avail, but holy damn could he fall to his knees and start singing the praises when it came to the STEM class, for one simple reason:

No. Canon. Characters.

Oh, gods above, Latin and Astronomy were _plagued_ with canon characters. It was the Greeks and Romans in the former, and the… _rest_ …in the latter, and they could not, to save their lives _shut up_ , because for whatever reason, despite this being a dimension where the pantheons didn't exist beyond storybooks, everyone still had dyslexia and ADHD.

Though, that wasn't the real cause for Shin'en's ire. If the above had been the whole case, then he could've managed just fine. No, the real reason as to why all the canon people absolutely sucked, was because they were a tightly nit group centered around one person:

Alex Fierro.

The typical Greeks, consisting of Leo and Calypso, Nico and Will, the Stolls, Clarisse and Chris, Grover and Juniper, and the typical Romans, consisting of Reyna and (surprisingly) Octavian, Frank and Hazel, Dakota and Gwen, and the mixed couple consisting of Piper and Jason, were all buddies with the Egyptians, consisting merely of Carter and Zia and Sadie and Walt, and the Norse, consisting only of Samirah and Amir, Mallory, Halfborn, TJ, Magnus, and of course, Alex.

There was also the side-clique of discount Hunters of Artemis and Amazons, but they kept to themselves and out of the way.

No, if Alex hadn't been here, this whole high school experience would've been just fine, but since he/she was here, and he/she was bringing along every canon aspect (besides the divine stuff, of course) of themselves, and he/she was just great friends with all the above mentioned peoples, that meant that all the above mentioned peoples had entirely bought in to Alex's LGBT views, and there hadn't been a single fucking day one in which Shin'en, Annabeth, and Asteria weren't subject to some gender drivel.

Sitting in the office for third period, Shin'en was massaging his temples. "I nuked a whole fucking planet because of people like Alex—why on this God forsaken rock am I being forced to interact with it directly?"

He muttered that so lowly and quietly that the only things Asteria and Annabeth heard were just faint noises.

"Wat?" the telepath asked.

Shin'en looked at her. "I asked why we keep holding our tongues every time Alex says something."

"Because we are lions," Annabeth said sagely. "And lions do not concern themselves with the opinions of sheep."

"If anything, Fierro is a hyena, not a sheep."

"Puh, a _rapid_ hyena that needs to be put down," Asteria said.

Annabeth sighed.

She, personally, made great efforts to put anything Alex and his/her friends said out of her mind, because she knew that if she dwelt on them for too long, she'd end up with the same mood as Asteria and Shin'en.

Was it because they all shared the same baseline conservative views which naturally conflicted with the liberalism that was brought forth by Alex?

Maybe.

Asteria was an outspoken conservative, but she wasn't allowed to say anything due to the Director, her evil step mother, being an outspoken liberal, and anything said in contrast to the trillionaire would result in Annabeth dying.

Janssen's words.

Annabeth tried to maintain the sovereign and superior position of not letting idiocy dictate her actions, and she really tried not to think like that either, because Asteria and Shin'en were both far too powerful to be so easily manipulated by the likes of Fierro's verbal shenanigans, and thinking that Fierro controlled them was tantamount to treason.

"What are you three talking about?" the office secretary, a kindly middle-aged woman by the name of Stacy Tarrant asked.

She was a bit of a ditz, but she was very sweet, and very good at her job.

"Alex Fierro," Asteria said.

"Oh."

Yes, Goode's resident LGBT president was a well-known figure, very loud, very quick to say something. The state of New York was a largely LGBT-friendly place, but there were always exceptions to the rule, and there were those here in Goode that didn't at all agree with anything Alex said, but by social law, they weren't allowed to say anything.

There was also the small fact that a past faculty member had put his foot down and told Alex that she could not, in fact, impose verbal restrictions on students to keep them from saying anything but positive things about the transgender community, and that faculty member had quickly been fired after Alex went all the way up the schoolboard and to multiple news outlets, in tears.

"What did…he, or…she…say today?"

Asteria rested her cheek on her fist. " _He_ said today that he was going to push for, at the next student council meeting, a 'trans day of recognition,' in that the student body will be made to _crossdress_ in order to gain experience as to what it's like for the trans community to feel _trapped_ and unable to be who they _feel_ they are _inside_."

"Alex also the laid down the fallacy that anyone who opposes this idea is transphobic and is going to be suspended for bullying," Annabeth picked up.

"Yes, it's quite ironic how _it_ continues to spew nonsense about equality while continuously putting the LGBT in places of superiority," Shin'en said.

Of course, the unspoken irony to this whole thing was the fact that Asteria was transgender, having been made that way for the sick amusement of Janssen, and so one might've thought she would've been all over Alex's idea, even being great friends with Alex, but those that knew Aster, particularly Annabeth and Shin'en, knew that such a thing would only happen when the sun froze over.

"Oh…" Ms. Tarrant said, trailing off. "I don't think even Alex could get something like that going."

"You're forgetting that Alex has already got it where no one is allowed to say negative things about the LGBT, and students can violate dress code as long as its LGBT-related, _and_ students who identify as LGBT are allowed to leave class if they ever feel like they're being 'attacked.'"

Asteria said all that with a very dry, very flat voice.

"In the world of today, the face of tyranny hides behind a rainbow flag," Shin'en said.

"Oh no," Asteria said with mock-concern, "they're not _tyrants_ , they're just _oppressed peoples_ who are finally _standing up_ and _speaking out_ …all while discrediting, attacking, and slapping rude and hateful labels on anyone who questions them or critiques them."

"You guys," Annabeth said, somewhat pleadingly, "can you stop giving them so much attention, and instead focus on real issues in the world, like pollution and corruption? All they are is just a bunch of whiny kids whose parents didn't raise them right."

"You agree with everything we're saying," Asteria said.

"Well, yeah, I do, but I also don't worry about them."

"And why's that?" the telepath said with a snide little grin. "Think that _God_ will smite those little sinners down?"

"No, God loves them as much as he loves you and me."

"But he'll send them all down to burn in Hell for all eternity if they don't accept Jesus as their lord and savior and repent for their sins."

"Yes, that's how that works," Annabeth said simply.

"Yeah, you can donate millions to charity, fund relief efforts to places devastated by weather and war, provide clean water, food, and education to African children, find homes for homeless veterans, and all these other good things, but if you don't believe in Jesus, you go to Hell."

Annabeth frowned at Asteria's atheistic nature, a nature that stemmed from once being a believer with a religious father, to what it was now thanks to Janssen and everything she did. In Asteria's mind, and nothing Annabeth had done had convinced her otherwise, God had forsaken her, and she felt very bitter about that, but she hid it behind a mask of snarkyness.

However, where Annabeth might have been willing to agree to disagree, Shin'en didn't tolerate Asteria's religious stance on the same principle the liberal stance irked him so much.

The temperature in the office dropped a few degrees as Shin'en leaned over into Asteria's view, eyes hard and cold.

" _Do not_ ever, _ever_ , argue a point with your emotional drivel again, Asteria Janssen. You continuously find fault with the liberals for their constant use of emotional argument, and I will not tolerate such brazen hypocrisy from the likes of _you_. Am I clear?"

Asteria swallowed, then pulled out her laptop and plugged in her earphones, heading to YouTube.

Knowing that was as close to a "yes" that he was going to get from the enormously prideful telepath, Shin'en dropped the matter and retrieved his own laptop.

"Aren't conversations funny?" Annabeth said aloud. "We went from lamenting Fierro's stupidity to dredging on Christianity."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en didn't necessarily _like_ people, as he was rather antisocial, but he could say he enjoyed the presence of the STEM kids, especially the two young men from Texas, Hunter and Gabe.

"So, what'd that fuckin' nutjob say today?" Hunter asked as soon as the Trio walked in through the engineering lab's door.

"Oh, nothing much, just that he's going to get the schoolboard to allow a day in which the whole student body will have to crossdress so they understand how trans people feel," Asteria answered.

Hunter barked a short, high-pitched squawk of a laugh. "Bitch, if I wanted to know how trans people feel, I'd sign myself into a mental hospital."

Gabe raised a brow. "Do you think I'd look good in girl's clothes?"

He was a rather homely fellow.

"To be fair, you don't look that great in men's clothes."

"Oh, fuck you."

"No, that'd be gay. We oppose that in our religion." Hunter looked back at Asteria. "What's the punishment for _not_ going along with Hitler?"

Hitler was the underground term used by those who didn't care for Alex, and equated his/her rule of the school to the Nazi regime, which, if you looked at it, wasn't that far off, as anyone that opposed Alex's views ended up in a lot of trouble. You didn't even have to directly oppose them; a few outspoken conservative students that hadn't even said a word to Alex had already been expelled on the grounds of "presenting a clear and dangerous fascist threat" to the student body.

"Oh, suspension," Asteria said with a smile, "for _bullying_."

"Fuckin' perfect, man. Free days off from school just for saying Hitler has a mental disorder? I'll be right back."

Hunter actually got up from his chair, but Annabeth spoke up.

"Oh, no you don't. Get your butt back in that chair."

"Yes, _Mom_."

"That's right son," Asteria said in a mock old man voice, "listen to your mother."

"You know, if you two weren't my bosses at work, I'd probably have thrown a chair at the both of you by now."

"Yep, and that's a one-way ticket to being fired," Asteria said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, that's why I haven't done it."

The small talk continued back and forth until class started, and the teacher, a strongman-built fellow that stood a little under six feet with a full beard and kind, blue-green eyes, stood before the small class of ten students.

"Good afternoon everybody. It's my pleasure to announce the start of the NYSAIS annual canned food drive!"

There were a few overenthusiastic cheers from a few teens being funny, Hunter included.

"What that means is that all of you will be going out and around the city to collect canned goods for those that can't provide for themselves during the coming holidays, and to add an incentive to actually do that, I've come up with this idea…"

The teacher then proceeded to lay the requirements for a tier of rewards, such as a pizza party in place of class, a field trip, a trip to a fancy restaurant during school, etc., and to get on board with all of that, you only needed to bring ten cans of stuff, and those that brought in the most canned goods would get a special reward. What, exactly, was not specified.

"Now, to make it _fair_ to the other students, you cannot go out and _buy_ any canned goods," the teacher said with an extremely pointed look at Asteria, "but you can buy things with money someone gives you."

"So," one student started, "do we just, like, go to peoples' doors and knock and say we're from such and such school doing a canned food drive, give us stuff?"

"Absolutely not," the teacher said. "What you're going to do is, go up to someone's door, knock, and when they answer, _politely_ introduce yourself, tell them which school you go to, tell them that you're collecting canned goods for those less fortunate this holiday season, and they're probably going to give you their whole _pantry_ because teens these days have reputations for being rude and disrespectful, and when they see how nice you guys are, they'll be so much more inclined to give."

"Y'all can hope, anyway," Hunter said. "This is the North, after all. Down there in Texas, we're glad to help each other out; up here, y'all have competitions to see who can honk their taxi horn the loudest, freakin' Yanks."

Overall, the canned food drive had to be one of the greatest highlights to Shin'en's high school experience.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Writing every exact instance of such an event would get tedious and be boring, but there were still some highlights.

Shin'en, Asteria, and Annabeth formed their own group, and Hunter, Gabe, and one of their friends, Kiran, formed their own group, and it was a nightly competition between the two groups to see who could collect more cans. In a place like New York, with its towering apartment complexes and innumerous suburban homes, there was ample ground to cover.

Some people gave a can or two, some people came out with a whole box of cans, and some people went way over the hill and not only brought a healthy crop of cans, but also brought jugs of juice, boxes of hamburger helper, and other things.

There were also sticks in the mud as well.

One late night, with the sun barely over the horizon, Asteria had knocked on a man's door and she had barely gotten her greeting cadence out of her mouth before the door was slammed shut in her face, which royally pissed the telepath off to high heaven.

Shin'en calmed his technical sister down by effortlessly, silently, and cleanly breaking into that particular home and cleaning out the man's entire kitchen of everything he had along with snagging every stray buck around the house, including the landlines, cellphone, and wallet, as well slashing three of the tires on the man's truck.

Annabeth just shook her head while Asteria pumped a victory fist.

Of course, that was what Shin'en did to a person that upset Asteria. What he did to the people that pissed him off was slightly worse.

He went up to a person's door, knocked, and went through the little cadence that had been practiced. Shin'en said with a smile, "Good evening, my name is Percy Jackson and I go to Johnson High School. My friends and I are conducting a canned food drive for those less fortunate this holiday season, do you have anything you might be willing to spare?"

The couple was an older couple, both of them fat and where normal people might not have smelled their stench, Shin'en certainly did. The reason for the change in names was because 'Shin'en Yūrei' sounded fake, and should there be any altercation, the Trio didn't want any more drama than what there already was in the form of angry strangers complaining about them to the high school, not that Asteria or Shin'en cared, but Annabeth did, and so for her sake the former two were on their best behavior.

Ahem.

"I don't know, honey…" the wife said, and Shin'en picked up sarcasm. "Do we have anything we might be willing to spare?"

"Hm, no." And the husband went nuts. "Do you see that sign, young man!? That sign says no loiterers, and if you don't get off my property, I will shoot you!"

Really, that was nothing but hot air meant to scare people away, as the fat old man would never do that, but it usually had the desired effect of scaring whoever it was knocking at his door away.

However, this was Shin'en, and at being threatened in such a manner, his face went completely blank, and the old people stiffened as their natural instincts triggered when they felt the change in the atmosphere.

"You will shoot me?" the Dragon Ghost of the Abyss asked hollowly. "I'm curious as to how you'll manage that….without _hands_."

Slowly, the old man brought his arms to his face to see what was up, and with their attention focused on that, Shin'en promptly put a pair of shuriken into their brains, and the momentum carried them halfway across their living rooms. Shin'en calmly entered and helped himself.

He also used a couple of organ incendiary tags to get red of the blood and the bodies.

He was also kind enough to lock the door on his way out.

"So, how was that house?" Asteria asked at seeing the large box that jingled with tin hitting against other tin.

"They were kind people, surprisingly. But I do suppose grandparents are inherently kind."

There was a little wooden plank underneath the no loiterers sign that told anyone who wanted to look that Nana and Poppa lived here.

"Wouldn't know," Asteria said. "All of my grandparents are dead."

"Same," Annabeth chimed.

Shin'en chose not to mention how he had an extensive tree of "great" relatives.

Towards the end of the nights, Shin'en, Asteria, and Annabeth would meet Gabe, Hunter, and Kiran at the closest fast food place to the two parties, and trade stories over a greasy meal.

"I just think it's funny, man," Hunter said. "You know, here all of us are, takin' time out our evenin' to go up and down the street, knockin' on doors and askin' people for cans, and for what, really? The benefit of homeless people? Naw, I'm here for a free day outta class for pizza, cookies, ice cream, and cokes."

Annabeth shrugged. "The reason might be bad, but what you're doing is a great thing."

"Yeah, I know, but I feel real twisted on the inside knowing my heart ain't where it should be."

"Your heart is underneath your ribcage," Shin'en said flatly. "It's right where it needs to be."

"…you know, man, we really need to work on your sense of literation. No shit my heart's underneath my ribcage, dipshit, if it weren't, I wouldn't be here."

"Correct. You'd be dead."

"I keep asking this," Hunter said to Asteria and Annabeth, "but where did this guy come from?"

"Pluto," the telepath answered. "The furthest object in our solar system from the Sun."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

However, the absolute highlight of the canned food drive was the day it ended, the Friday before everyone got out for Thanksgiving Break, in which Asteria had the class gather outside the building by the student parking lot, which had a generous amount of sidewalk schoolside intended for the use of emergency vehicles to get as close as possible.

"Asteria," the teacher asked calmly, "why did you want us out here?"

"Oh, just keep listening. They should be here any second now."

It should be noted that Hunter, Gabe, and Kiran had managed to collect over three thousand cans over the course of the past month and a half, as opposed to Shin'en, Asteria, and Annabeth's total of just under the former's.

As to what Asteria was referring, Shin'en could already hear it, and he shook his head, making the telepath smile like a loon as she figured out that he figured it out.

About five seconds later, the song was able to be heard and it had the class cracking up in disbelief. The teacher was pinching the bridge of his nose as his shoulders shook in laughter.

Annabeth was palming her face. "You know our janitor's Vietnamese, right?"

"Oh, I know," Asteria said insanely.

Right after she said it, said janitor went running out the school to the parking lot, screaming in his native language as he dove under some cars with his head protectively held under his hands.

Above, the helicopters hovered as the soldiers rappelled down with a massive crate of canned goods, the speakers attached to the flying machines playing their song loud and proud.

" _IT AIN'T ME_

 _IT AIN'T ME_

 _I AIN'T NO FORTUNATE SON!"_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Of course, before the Thanksgiving Break, there was Homecoming.

Asteria and Annabeth went solely because Annabeth wanted to be able to truthfully say that she attended her senior Ho-co, and Shin'en went because A) he was asked to by the former two, and B) it was still unknown whatever purpose he was in this dimension for, so for all he knew making sure Homecoming went off without a hitch was that purpose.

They kept their plan to attend a secret from Sally and Marian, the Director, because they knew that Sally would want a slew of pictures, and the last thing any of them wanted was to be anywhere near those two lunatics for any more than two seconds. So, the Trio just up and left.

Asteria was clad in a dress only the superrich could afford, and she hated the entire thing because _she_ was, and always would be, a _he_ , and men didn't wear fancy, beautiful dresses designed specifically for flaunting the female figure. Asteria also hated the dress because it worked perfectly for her altered body, having been tailormade for her dimensions, courtesy of Janssen to the clothing company, as a sick joke.

But it was all for Annabeth's sake this night, and Percy would move the world for his beloved.

Annabeth herself was wearing a dress nearly as beautiful and opulent as her boyfriend, and Shin'en was wearing his usual outfit, which still made him look absolutely regal and dignified, like some great lord attending a ball.

At the dance itself, held at Goode, the three of them chose to occupy one of the many tables outside the cafeteria, the venue for the dance room. They were more content to people watch than to dance.

"How many of them do you think would die if we three a grenade right in the middle of them?"

"Depending on the grenade's yield, and if there's any shrapnel inside, I'd say all of them. They are rather tightly packed."

Annabeth pinched her nose at the conversation between her boyfriend and her boyfriend's lookalike. "You two are going to be the death of me, I swear."

"Oh, lighten up, kiddo," Asteria teased. "We're only having some fun."

"And speaking of fun…!" a voice called from a short distance, and none other than Alex Fierro himself, dragging Magnus along, stopped by. "Why aren't you two in there dancing with the rest?"

Alex was apparently feeling like boy this night, because "he" was wearing an otherwise hideous lime green and pink suit. He also had on a sincere smile, and Asteria, to her endless consternation, knew he was truly being sincere and genuine, and she hated that because it was hard to feel justified about wanting to tell someone off when they actually being nice.

However, where social politics might've governed the actions of many, Shin'en was a rare exception. He could tell Annabeth and Asteria wanted nothing more than to tell Alex to take a long walk off a short pier, but because Alex had come over being genuinely nice and friendly, doing so would paint them as the bad guys.

He didn't care because he had the power to blow up planets, and people that powerful cared not for the opinions of people that…well… _couldn't_ do that.

Much less people that couldn't bench press two hundred pounds.

"Because, Fierro," Shin'en said crisply, "they don't want to, and your presence here is ruining the atmosphere we were enjoying, so please take yourself and Magnus away so we can get back to enjoying our night together. Thank you."

All three of them could tell Alex wanted to say something about being told off, but Magnus was ever the pacifist.

"Come on, Alex. They want to spend their Homecoming out here, that's their choice. It's our job to respect their choice and leave them alone."

Alex found himself unable to do anything but nod and lead Magnus away at her own philosophy being put in front of his face like that.

When those two were inside and well out of earshot, Asteria asked with a snide voice, "Who do you think takes it? Magnus or Alex?"

Annabeth answered. "I think they switch."

"Considering Fierro is a biological female, I believe there must be a toy involved in there somewhere."

"Oh, there is," Asteria snorted. "I was reading their minds and Magnus is looking forward to some extracurricular activities tonight…"

"Bitch," Shin'en summarized.

For the next thirty minutes, they engaged in idle chatting about what they saw, said a cordial hello to anyone that greeted them, and then a slow melody was heard from the inside.

Asteria could tell that Annabeth wanted to dance, but they had forever refrained from doing anything public with each other do to their desire to avoid being labeled as lesbians and on the receiving end of some form of criticism. That was more for Annabeth's sake, the good Christian girl, than for Asteria's, who had lesbian mothers.

"Come on," Asteria finally said. "Everyone thinks we're gay anyway."

"I don't want to bother anyone…" was Annabeth's excuse.

Truth be told, she was nervous, her heart racing and everything.

"Will's got one hand on Nico's ass as we speak, right in the middle of everyone, and Magnus and Alex are about to start sucking on each other's tongues. No one's going to say anything to us if we decide to dance. Besides, in today's world, saying anything negative about an openly gay couple is tantamount to terrorism."

Annabeth couldn't argue there, and so she joined Asteria for a dance.

Shin'en went inside with them, and occupied one of the chairs along the edge of the dancefloor, effectively becoming a wallflower. All the other couples on the dancefloor moved awkwardly, not knowing how to waltz appropriately, as they had never been taught, but it was not so for Asteria, who was basically the stepdaughter of royalty.

Her movements with Annabeth were perfect, graceful, coordinated. It was like watching a well-rehearsed ballet performance.

Their actions eventually drew the attention of the whole congregation because of how much they stood out, not only as the infamous Asteria and Annabeth, but their choreography as well. When the song ended, and Asteria finished by dipping Annabeth down, the Homecoming crowd erupted into cheers.

A faster song played on the sound system, and Asteria and Annabeth made their way back over to Shin'en amidst the moving crowd, not inclined to join the fervent teens in jerking their bodies around.

And that's when the evening fell apart.

Since the beginning of the dance, one young man, the class degenerate, and been busying himself with feeling up the girls in the crowd and moving away to not get caught. He had been grabbing butts, making girls think their boyfriends were being frisky, and he had been quickly running is finger between their cheeks, performing the Credit Card maneuver.

Again, he was doing this in heavy foot traffic, and there were so many people about that no one was able to connect it to him because he moved away so fast. Shin'en had admittedly lost track of the boy when he became focused on the dance, but he zeroed right back in on him…when his finger was already in motion behind Annabeth's rear.

The blonde gasped sharply, and the boy behind her made a balking sound at feeling his finger not go smoothly sliding into a pair of panties, but right into the padding of what he thought was a diaper.

Shin'en's hand clamped around the boy's throat before anything else could happen, and he squeezed with so much force that the vertebrae instantly splintered and the esophagus instantly collapsed.

Annabeth's face was red in humiliation, and Asteria's was red in absolute fury.

Shin'en set the body in a chair and the Trio were heading out an otherwise locked side door, Shin'en undoing the lock with his chakra, and after a short trip to the parking lot and into the car, Asteria was peeling away, driving angry at what had happened to her beloved.

It was one thing to be treated in such a way, it was entirely another to be treated in such a way _and_ have your closely guarded personal secret so rudely discovered and then almost blurted out for over two hundred teenagers to hear.

Annabeth sniffled quietly to herself, hating herself for having the psychological issues that she did, the decision that she made to wear a Goodnite tonight, and the fact that her much-looked forward to Homecoming had been ruined by the run-of-the-mill pervert.

Shin'en was also angry, angry at himself for not doing a better job, and for not being faster.

All the while, Ryuk hovered alone in the night sky, his red eyes glowing as he savored the entertainment.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

During the Thanksgiving Break, Asteria decided it was the perfect opportunity to teach Shin'en how to drive.

He raised a brow at her declaration in the morning. "I know how to drive."

"No, you know the _concept_ of how to drive. You know turning the wheel turns the car, the gas makes it go, the break makes it stop, and how to work the blinker." Asteria's eyes narrowed. "I swear if I ever see you change lanes or turn _without_ your blinker, I will take that sword of yours and cut off your hands."

"Scary," Shin'en said flatly.

Over the months, he had noticed how Asteria was not only a speed demon on the highway, rarely dropping below eighty-five, but how her greatest pet peeve on the roadway was people not using their blinkers…right behind people going slower than the speed limit in the passing lane.

Women scorned hath no fury like an Asteria behind someone going sixty in the passing lane.

"What I'm going to do is teach you how to _drive_ ," the telepath said with a crazed smile.

Over the course of the break, Shin'en learned how to drive from one of the best drivers on the planet, and that was no joke.

With all the money Asteria had, she gladly organized extracurricular classes for herself and Annabeth to take part in during the break periods of the year, and for a whole summer, Thanksgiving Break, and Christmas Break, she and Annabeth took expert driving courses under the tutelage of professional racers and stunt drivers, coming out to be some of the world's finest.

And Shin'en could call himself one of the best as well, having absorbed everything Asteria could teach him like a sponge.

He also discovered that he preferred motorcycles to actual cars, because with a motorcycle he could flying down the shoulder and completely bypass any traffic. Which was against New York law, but someone like Shin'en had no care for the law, in any form or fashion.

However, despite the excitement of driving on a closed course at over a hundred miles an hour, racing against two other cars going just as fast, the memory Shin'en's soul fragment went to was the Sunday night before the break ended, in which he, Annabeth, and Asteria were playing Super Smash Bros. Melee on the telepath's GameCube, on what was probably the world's largest home television.

The thing was absolutely massive, belonging in a stadium instead of someone's room. Granted, Asteria's bedroom had more floor space than some houses, so that left a lot of area to be occupied, which is why she had this massive entertainment center with a television bigger than some trucks, equipped with surround sound, 4k resolution, DVD, CD, Blu-ray, Netflix, and everything else under the sun.

Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, the works.

The reason as to why this memory happened to have a soul fragment was because of the fact that it was hot this evening, and Shin'en had forgone his cloak, exposing his lithe frame and numerous scars, Asteria was wearing a skirt and very loose t-shirt, and Annabeth…yeah, she was the attention-grabber.

Like Asteria, her upper half was covered only by a shirt, while her lower half…was occupied solely by her Goodnite.

The three teens were embroiled in a vicious battle royale, with Shin'en kicking the other two's asses with his superior reflexes. He was rather fond of Captain Falcon, being able to time the titular Falcon Punch just right to deal maximum damage and send someone flying off the screen.

Whenever it came to this particular game, Asteria took a recliner and propped her legs up, Annabeth sat on a large footrest, leaning forward, and Shin'en took another recliner, content to sit as he was. Also whenever it came to Smash Bros., the real competition was between Annabeth and Asteria to see who could kill the other fastest, so they could claim second place.

In this particular round, Asteria blasted Annabeth right off and pumped a fist in victory. "Yeah! Take that, bitch!"

Shin'en's lips quirked up ever so slightly as he rushed and Falcon Punched Asteria's Samus right off the edge of Brinstar.

"Yeah," Annabeth said coldly, "take that, bitch."

Annabeth, like her canon self, had a rather large sense of pride, which, admittedly, was foiled by her psychological fixation around Goodnites, and so being defeated and having it rubbed in her face was one of her triggers.

Driven to win this round, after Shin'en picked the Ice Mountain stage, Annabeth unceremoniously found a new position splayed out over Asteria's legs with her face by the telepath's feet and her own feet over Asteria's arms. Shin'en's counterpart found her eyes _glued_ to the diapered ass not even two feet away from her eyes.

"It's times like these when I might just reconsider my religious views," Asteria said distantly.

"That's until she farts and it goes right up your nose," Shin'en commented.

Annabeth turned her head to fix Asteria with a coy smirk, which prompted as response.

"If you fart in my face, young lady, you will go over my knee and count how many spanking you get."

"Ooh, feeling kinky tonight, _Mommy_?"

"Maybe."

Asteria grabbed a handful of ass, and slipped her thumb past the leak guards to rim her girlfriend.

"Stop that," Annabeth said sternly.

"Baby girls don't tell their mommies what to do."

"These two are fucking disgusting," Ryuk said to Shin'en.

The demigod nodded in agreement.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In February, Shin'en got bored with the daily proceedings and decided to mess with Alex just for his own personal amusement. Nothing serious by any means, just the standard things you say to any fragile little snowflake to set them off, like there are only two genders, quoting Ben Shapiro or simply saying the Jew's name, or simply reciting basic anatomical facts.

Alex ended up storming out of the classroom in angry tears, Magnus and Samirah right on her heels to provide comfort.

Asteria had to bury her face to keep people from seeing her laugh, and Annabeth raised her book ever so slightly so her smile couldn't be seen. Alex's friends in the classroom, Sadie, Carter, Walt, Zia, Amir, Mallory, Halfborn and TJ all got up to get on Shin'en's case, but he put them all back in their seats by eeking out the barest trace of killer intent.

Less than one present had been enough to send the Signers, the chosen ones of the godlike Crimson Dragon of the _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ World, into a near-catatonic state.

These people, just regular teenage mortals, without even the benefit of pseudo divinity? Forget it, they weren't about to handle any of the shit Shin'en could dish out.

After Alex left, it wasn't even five minutes later before the intercom went off, with the office secretary requesting Shin'en's presence in the principal's office.

"You're gonna get it now," the spitfire that was Mallory sneered.

"I'm sure," was the dry response.

Shin'en made his way down to the offices, noting with an internal eyeroll how Alex was in one of the counselor's rooms with Sam and Magnus, lamenting about how hard it was to be trans and fluid in the big evil world.

The Abyss entered the office of the little mortal principal, a small woman called Courtney Peck, affectionally referred to as Ms. Pecker by the student body. On her desk were several knickknacks and a computer, and about the walls were bookshelves and posters with the cheap sayings you usually see in classrooms. One wall had large windows, allowing for a generous amount of natural sun to be let in.

In front of the desk were two comfortable chairs.

"Have a seat," Ms. Peck said sternly.

Shin'en remained completely impassive in the face of allowing himself to be ordered about by someone so low on his radar as the principal of a high school. He sat down and was then seemingly forgotten by the woman as she continued to type away at her keyboard.

After a counted six minutes and eighteen seconds passed, Shin'en was beginning to feel his patience wear thin. Like all demigods, he did have ADHD as well, only he had learned to exploit it to its full combative prowess, but even he could only handle so much before he started to become restless.

Compared to most demigods who weren't able to sit still for more than a few seconds, six minutes was borderline godlike.

At eight minutes, Shin'en was officially annoyed, being reminded of all the times he had spent at Yorkshires, the grocery store he technically worked at with Annabeth and Asteria. The pretentiousness of adults in the face of teenagers was an ever vexing thing.

"Are we going to have a conversation, or are you going to continue wasting my time?"

Peck looked at him affronted with his disrespect. "Excuse _you_ , mister. I will get to you when I'm done here."

"Really?" Shin'en asked with false surprise. "I apologize for adding to your already cramped itinerary. Here, let me help lighten the load."

He was all onboard with cordiality coming into this office, but after sitting there for almost ten straight minutes, being ignored even after he was specifically summoned, he was pissed off.

Pecker flinched with a squawk when Shin'en casually rammed his staff through her computer monitor. To make a bigger mess, he flicked his wrist and sent the monitor hurtling across the room where it smashed against the wall and completely broke apart, tearing several cables out of their sockets during its flight.

It was a good thing this office was heavily soundproofed, designed that way because this was the principal's office, in which screaming parents were expected, because the sound of that little machine smashing against the wall would've had so many people rushing inside, which would've really cramped Shin'en's day.

Ryuk would've been overjoyed, but he was already enjoying himself in the face of Shin'en completely ruining Pecker's perception of the situation.

"Now that that's out of the way, we can get to our conversation. So, you called me down here, away from my friends, in a class with a teacher's whose presence I admittedly enjoy—Clarkson is rather intelligent and he has yet to not answer any of my questions regarding the Bible and the science he teaches—only to be placed in a chair for ten minutes while you ignored me. Now…what do want, Ms. Peck?"

The woman was in shock at the blatant display of force. Granted, if you were the otherwise unchallenged highest authority in an institution and one of the people under you unceremoniously hurled your computer monitor into a wall, wouldn't you be a little at a loss for words too?

"Ms. Peck," Shin'en said louder, clearer. "Focus in please, we're on the clock."

"Y-Yes, right, on the clock…" The woman's brain seemingly did a hard reboot, as it appeared she completely forgot about her broken computer, and reverted back to whatever mindset she had when she had requested his presence almost a quarter-hour ago.

"Do you know what this school's tolerance of bullying is, Mr. Yūrei?"

"Zero. A faulty standing, for adversity builds character and develops the mental strength necessary to carry through life. Your coddling of the student body weakens and pampers them."

Peck ignored that entire spiel, writing Shin'en off as just another teen who thought he knew better. "Yes, zero tolerance. What you said to Alex is unacceptable."

"Stating facts is unacceptable?" Shin'en rose a brow.

The principal sighed, suddenly seeming like a sympathetic person. "No, stating facts is not unacceptable. It's _who_ you were stating those facts to. You know Alex is an avid member of the LGBT, and what her life was like before came to New York—" Peck caught herself.

It was a widely known fact that she often said things she wasn't supposed to about some of the student body.

But Shin'en was unphased and not ignorant. "Oh, I know much about Alex Fierro's past. A mother that abandoned her, a father and siblings that didn't support her _gender identity_ , and only a grandfather that loved her for who she is, and taught her about pottery. Then her grandfather passed and she went to the streets for a few months, evading law enforcement until she was adopted by the Fadlan family. Absolutely _none_ of that is grounds for _any_ kind of special privilege, treatment, or preference."

He had spent two weeks raising a pair of twins, one of which was systematically raped by a full-grown man, the other relentlessly beaten for whatever reason, both of whom were starved and locked away in their bedroom with only each other and their filth as company, while their own mother just sat there watched, too high and drunk to notice or care.

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Peck said, "but that doesn't change the fact that Alex came running down here in tears about what you said to her, and considering her background and this school's stance on those who identify as LGBT, you will still be punished. The rest of this week and the next in ISS."

In School Suspension; you got placed in a windowless, undecorated, boring room in the depths of the school and were made to handwrite the school's abridged rulebook, roughly three thousand words, and then you were given whatever assignments your teachers made for you to do. Lunch was brought to you, but it was the school-issued, crappy lunch for the poor kids, and if you had time privileges, such as late arrival or early release, those were revoked during your sentence, meaning you had to be at the school for opening, and you had to stay until dismissal.

More tedious and infuriating than actually punishing, but Shin'en was hardly phased.

Gatou was rather creative with his punishments.

"Is that so…?" the Abyss said slowly. "Well, Ms. Pecker," he reached out and crushed a stapler to pieces in his hand, making the woman flinch, "in order to carry that sentence out," he proceeded to grab a textbook and tear it half clean down the middle like it was a single sheet of paper, "you'll first have to acquire the necessary force," he grabbed a reward twice the size of a baseball, made of glass, with what the award was fore inscribed in the face, and shattered it with barely any effort, "to make me comply to your authority," then he grabbed the lip of the desk and lifted the entire thing off the ground like it was a baseball bat, smiling merrily, "which might prove to be very difficult."

Shin'en let the desk slam back to the ground, and he rose gracefully from his seat. "Good day, Ms. Pecker. I trust you and I will _never_ speak again."

He left the principal's office, and Ms. Peck's brain did yet another hard reboot, and it also pushed all the recently lived memories down very deep, so as to protect Peck from the trauma she just endured.

True to Shin'en's word, he and the principal never spoke again, and Alex and his entourage were very upset that he was seemingly unpunished for all the "mean" things he had said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

About two weeks later, in the final days of February, at the mansion, in Asteria's room, Shin'en walked in to find the lovers not committing to any sexual acts, as he had done several times before just to mess with them both, but to find Asteria behaving like a child on the morning of Christmas.

"It's here!" she cheered.

Shin'en raised a brow. "What's here?"

He saw the large Amazon Prime shipping box on the carpet, its contents—consisting of three plastic toy guitars, a toy drum set, and a microphone—all over the floor, unwrapped and set up as if a band was about to play.

Annabeth threw a little green Xbox game case at Shin'en, and he caught it and examined the front. It was a rock guitar sitting against a brick wall with a single source of lighting coming from the top right, out of frame, creating the image that this guitar was some legendary item just waiting for you to pick it up and play it.

" _Gods of Rock: Legends of the 80s_ ," Shin'en read aloud. "Featuring the greatest hits of ACDC, Queen, Def Leppard, Kiss, Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, Journey, and many more….So it's _Guitar Hero_ only with better music?"

"It's _Guitar Hero_ with only the greatest music _ever_ ," Asteria said with stars in her eyes. "I commissioned this baby myself, and now I get a percentage of all the proceeds."

Shin'en wasn't surprised by any means, and merely asked, "Are we going to start playing, or were we saving that for a later day?"

"We're starting right now. Annabeth's got her pull-up off and everything."

Yes, in previous times in which the Trio decided to play a rock game with the special controllers, they got really into it, working up a sweat—or at least, Annabeth and Asteria did—and since Annabeth's typical underwear was a garment designed specifically to absorb moisture, and her body started producing a lot of moisture as she got into the game, it created the bad combination of a clammy Goodnite that she usually had to peel from her body after the fact.

Much better to put on some panties for a jam session with her boyfriend and best friend.

That night, they jammed, and they jammed _hard_ , nearly shaking the stars right out of the sky.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Things went downhill fast at the coming of May, when Shin'en was having a particularly bad day after having several nightmares of Yūrei, Yugito, Persephone, and the orphans, and Alex just had to make a snide comment, still feeling very vindictive after what happened in February, which was enough to set Shin'en off, and he proceeded to roast the ever-loving shit out of the genderfluid teenager, completely and utterly destroying her psyche, confidence, security, and identity with nothing but cold, deep, clear words.

Alex once again went running out of the classroom in tears, and not yet done, Shin'en turned his attentions to the Egyptians and the Norse, and picked every one of them apart as well. They all quickly joined Alex in leaving the classroom in various states of emotional distress.

As it was revealed the next morning, Alex Fierro had committed suicide by shooting herself in the face, which did nothing to Shin'en or Asteria besides make them shrug. Annabeth however, was highly displeased with them both.

The Director, however, saw opportunity to merely put her stepdaughter on the spot for nothing but a little bit of entertainment, threatening the lives of not only Sally, but also of all the kids that Annabeth went to Sunday School with, along with the whole church in general.

So, for Annabeth's sake, Asteria agreed to host an interview with the major news outlets of the country, coming out to the world as transgender, which about as much of an effect as you imagine.

The real highlight to that exposed story was that the next day at school, during the lunch period, Alex's friends whipped up a mob.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Asteria, Annabeth, and Shin'en were at an outside table enjoying the clear weather, when the telepath went rigid and the shinobi turned a dark gaze to the cafeteria area. Annabeth didn't get to ask what was up, because the doors inside burst open as over three hundred angry teens came storming out.

"Oh, this'll be fun," Shin'en muttered. "What're they here for?"

"Revenge for Alex," Asteria shrugged.

"Oh, this is going to be _lots_ of fun."

Magnus was heading the mob, and Shin'en rose from his chair and stood before them, drawn up to his full 5'10.

"You're going to pay for what you said to Alex," Magnus said, and he pointed to Asteria, "and _he's_ going to pay too, for lying this whole time. He could've helped Alex, but instead he just chose to sit back and let her suffer like the rest of the transgender community does."

"Bold words," Shin'en commended. "But have you ever given any thought to the fact that maybe the transgender community would be just fine if they… _didn't_ …tell people they were trans? For example, all of you were just fine with Asteria up until this point, and the only thing that changed was a little bit of knowledge."

Shin'en put a finger to his temple and smiled, recreating the Thinking Black Guy meme.

"People can't persecute you for being trans, if they don't know you're trans."

As it was often said: the truth hurts.

And the truth hurt Magnus so bad that he yelled and rushed forward, only to get close-lined so hard he did a complete 520-degree spin midair and landed on his face.

"Well, who's next?"

Some ran at Shin'en and others looked for Asteria and Annabeth, but they had slipped away during the previous confrontation and were already peeling out of the parking lot, leaving the shinobi to tangle with roughly 300 able-bodied teens. Now, his body was still in its damaged state, with the screwed up chakra network, and the heart/lung problems.

However, the amount of effort required for someone as powerful as him, even in this weakened state, was roughly equivalent to the amount of effort required to hit a button on a TV remote to change the channel.

Shin'en might've felt really bad about beating all these kids up _if_ they were actually related to Asteria and Annabeth.

As was usual of Mortal AUs, Percy, Thalia, Jason, Nico, Hazel, and Bianca were typically cousins, usually because their dads were all crime bosses or some other overused bullshit. Not so in this dimension. Thalia and Jason were half-siblings, sharing the same mother; Nico and Bianca were full siblings, with Hazel being their step via a different mother, and Percy in this dimension was Asteria, so…yeah.

No cousins.

Not even Magnus and Annabeth were cousins in the world of _Xenophobic_ , which was really an interesting thing because that fact was more canonical than the children of the Big Three being cousins, seeing as gods didn't have DNA which, for all intents and purposes, meant that the Big Three kids _weren't_ cousins, but that didn't stop them from seeing each as such.

On a side note, that logic meant that Percy is canonically related to Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler, but Uncle Rick conveniently leaves that out even though he said himself that Hitler was the son of Pluto and Stalin of Hades.

But anyway.

Shin'en kicked 300 different kinds of ass and didn't even break a sweat. He wasn't even breathing differently.

He shouldered his staff and idly wondered why none of the campus security guards had come out here, and then figured they had probably watched and weren't about to get involved. Shin'en looked around the courtyard at all the moaning and crying teens, all with various injuries. None of them were dead, and none of them were going to die of blood loss or clots, but they probably wouldn't be able to use that arm or leg again.

"Oh well," Shin'en said aloud, and the began heading towards the parking lot, figuring that he had done enough at Goode for one day. "There's probably going to be a lot of parents mad at me…oh well."

He met Asteria and Annabeth at their sacred spot on the cliff with the oak tree.

"You didn't kill them all, did you?" Asteria asked.

"No, but they might wish I had when they're in the ICU."

"You're going to be in a lot of trouble," Annabeth surmised. "You might've gotten away with a lot of things, but this is way too much to sweep under the rug."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Shin'en said, looking out over the sea. "Janssen's got too much face to hold onto to let it be marred by a nonlethal school massacre. She'll keep things quiet."

"Well, that sounds good to me. Beer?"

"Sure."

Asteria reached into the mini cooler by her side, something she always kept in her car and always stocked with ice and beverage, and she pulled out a beer…a Frostie Root Beer that is.

Shin'en took the cold glass bottle, twisted the cap off, and took a long swig of the cold soda.

Asteria gave one to Annabeth, took for herself, and they both opened at roughly the same time.

"To the dead," the telepath said.

Annabeth and Shin'en raised their Root Beers. "And to the next man to die."

They drank together, the two non-shinobi having no idea the significance of such a toast, but they knew it was important.

Besides, it sounded cool.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Well, that was certainly a very long one. Sorry about that, but I was drawing on memories of senior year and the words just went floating from my head to my fingers to the keyboard.**_

 _ **Ironically enough,**_ _ **this**_ _ **was the chapter I enjoyed writing the most out of all of**_ **Blood War** _ **, probably because, like I said, I was drawing on memories of high school.**_

 _ **I'll let you guys figure out which ones were fabricated and which were real.**_

 _ **As this chapter focused mostly on the high school setting, the next chapter will be mostly focused on the grocery store, Yorkshires. So, if you thought Shin'en whipping the principal's ass was fun, wait until you see him with rude customers.**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	52. His Pain

_His Pain_

 _ **Oh, and I forgot to mention that I'm very, very, very (not) sorry for that April Fool's joke, but you can't be all that made at me. I was originally going to make the story and the summary one regarding an idea I've had about Percy being the son of Star Wars' Abeloth, the One that is the Mother, and the most powerful being in all of Star Wars, more powerful that Darths Vader, Sidious, Revan, Nihilus and Vitiate combined,**_ _ **and**_ _ **more powerful than Masters Yoda, Luke, Shan, and stronger than even Anakin Skywalker…combined.**_

 _ **But my friend instead suggested making the story and summary a sequel to something already up, and that was a better sinker than my idea.**_

 _ **So blame my friend.**_

 _ **This is the last chapter of memories. After this, it's back to the present with the fallout of seeing the things Shin'en did…some of them, anyway. Still trying to decide if the Greeks should retain all these memories, keep some of them, some Greeks keep varying amounts, or if they should all forget.**_

 _ **Suggestions?**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With Asteria's influence and control, both in and out of school, she made it to where she and Annabeth had the exact same schedules, beyond just at Goode. At Yorkshires, the grocery store they worked at, Asteria had it in stone that she and her girlfriend, after they got out of school at two o'clock, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, they had work from three in the afternoon to closing, which was ten.

So, a guaranteed twenty-one hours a week, and with their payrate at thirteen an hour, that was a solid two-seventy a week, as Yorkshires paid weekly. That was on top of any hours Asteria decided to put in for the weekend, if she and Annabeth didn't have any outstanding plans for Saturday and/or Sunday.

Of course, with Annabeth's religious inclination, the morning of Sunday was usually spent at the church, and then the rest of the day at work, as Yorkshires, denoting themselves as a Christian company, paid a whole extra dollar per hour for those that worked on the Day of Rest. Eight hours for fourteen dollars each hour was rather hard to ignore.

However, none of the money could compare to the other thing Asteria had done to Yorkshires when she took over the store: she had made it the kind of retail haven all retail workers yearned for.

The place in which they didn't have to hold their tongues in the face of or kowtow to the whims of rude customers.

Much of the clientele had sharply dropped when Asteria implemented her dictatorship, but the way the telepath saw it, all those lost customers had been the rude and disrespectful and entitled adults who came in here with the mindset that they could walk over the sixteen and seventeen-year-old cashiers and bag boys/girls.

Not on Asteria's watch.

" _Why_ are you like this?" Annabeth had asked after Asteria sent out a crabby old lady.

"Because," the telepath answered with a superior smirk, "Uncle Ben made it clear that those with great power have a great responsibility, and since I have great power, I have a great responsibility, namely holding all of these disrespectful adults accountable for their deplorable behavior towards teens."

Annabeth just sighed.

Shin'en's introduction to the grocery store had come several days ago when he had wanted some eggs and Yorkshires had been the closest store to the neighborhood he had settled down in. He hadn't been bothered in the slightest by the eight o'clock dredges, but over the days, as he spent more and more time in the grocery store, he found his opinions regarding the human race starting to sour even more than what they already were.

Which was really something considering he wiped the human race off a planet one time.

There was a pattern to the days, Shin'en noted.

When the five o'clock hour hit on Monday and Tuesday evenings, there was suddenly a massive rush of people that didn't die out for almost three hours straight, and most of the shoppers were women in business attire and men in work clothes.

The conversations he picked up on between the cashiers and the customers was generally the same:

"Didn't do your shopping over the weekend?"

"Nope. Got too busy."

"Mm-hm."

So, Shin'en saw too things in that situation: One, people wanted to maximize what little time they had over the course of 48 hours to spend it with their families, presumably, and two, absolute laziness.

The general opinion of the present workforce was that people needed to get off their asses and get up here on the weekend so they didn't have to come bother the employees with their weekday bullshit.

That was the first two days of the week.

Shin'en didn't know what Wednesdays were like because Asteria and Annabeth didn't work Wednesdays, and he wasn't going to waste his time in a grocery store when the only two people he had any real opinions over weren't there.

The Thursday crowd was much like the Monday/Tuesday one, only instead of it being people that hadn't done their grocery shopping over the weekend, it was people that didn't want to their grocery shopping over the weekend…and typically ended up back here anyway because they forgot something.

Once again, the general opinion was that everyone just needed to do their shopping on the weekend.

And then the weekend actually came, and it was the same song and dance every time. The morning hours were predictably slow, with generally only the old people showing up because they got up early, but by the nine to ten hour, things began picking up as people got their days started by getting the weekly grocery shopping done.

There was also the college football fans, who came in before game time and brought grocery carts laden with chips, dips, beers, and grilling foods up to the front. They were always an enthusiastic bunch. The NFL people weren't much different.

The weekends were typically had a steady rate of people, with the only rush times being between noon and five. After five, there was _usually_ a medium flow of people, as not many wanted to grocery shopping during their Saturday evening, when they could be having dinner with the family, and it was even less on Sunday, in which people had to be thinking about getting in bed so they could get enough rest for the Munday morning sludge.

Shin'en also noted how the weekends usually brought a more upbeat and relaxed feel than the weekday evenings, and he had a theory as to why: the frontend employees were all high school students, at least, the evening shifters were, as it was the older ones that covered the days. When the high schoolers got here for their shifts, they were already tired and worn out from a day of lessons, classwork, tests, teachers, and fellow people, so they were hardly in the best of moods when it came to having to spend their remaining hours of the day at work, doing things they didn't want to do with people they didn't care for, especially when they had homework hanging over their heads.

When the weekends came, yeah, they weren't particularly thrilled with having to spend their time away from school at work, but on the weekends they came in fresh and ready to go, their "bullshit meters" at a relatively low levels.

For his part, up until the beginning of October, Shin'en had garnered the reputation of a silent watchdog. In the office where Asteria and Annabeth operated, where there was the money safe, the lottery tickets, money orders, and the security camera control center, there was an adjacent alcove where the employees could hang their coats and get a quick cup of water from a big Gatorade jug. On the floor, by the door, were two tote baskets in which the "put-backs" were placed, the items that customers either decided they didn't want for whatever reason or random things that were found left out throughout the store.

Shin'en hung out in that small room, either sitting on top of or leaning on the counter next to the small window adjacent to the office, which was barred by locked door, saying only authorized personnel beyond this point.

However, there was about four feet of space between the door frame and the ceiling, so if you wanted to climb over it, you could. It was designed such to allow for the carrying of sound, as the cashiers were expected to call out the number of their lane whenever a problem arose.

Anyway, Shin'en got his reputation by just quietly sitting in his spot, sometime making idle conversation with Asteria or Annabeth, but even though the telepath was basically god of the store, she still shouldered responsibility and helped Annabeth with whatever needed to be done, whether that was closing down the office at the applicable time, controlling the turmoil of the front end, or assisting with those that came to the office in need of…whatever.

There was an extensive list.

What Shin'en did was monitor the store. His divine powers might have been limited, in that he could no longer control the water inside of a person, but he could still sense that water, and all the water in the air. What he did was keep a mental track of all movements and conversations, his hearing acute enough to pick up the words spoken in hushed whispers all the way at the back of the store, and his brain able to cancel out all interference noise and focus solely on that conversation.

He could also use his hydro-sensing to follow lip and tongue movements to a letter.

His main focus was on shoplifters, for no other reason than because he could, and there was something of a bit of fun in quietly hovering behind someone as they fervently worked to steal something out of a box, and then listen to them squeal when they turned around to see him standing about three inches from their face.

It was not an uncommon sight to see Shin'en marching someone to the front of the store, their arm twisted painfully behind their back, and proceed to literally throw them out into the parking lot, regardless of age or gender. Shin'en had been seen escorting older children, younger teens, older teens, those in their twenties, and even an old man once, thought the levels of violence used did vary from person to person.

One rather pathetic person threatened to sue after she was thrown out, but Shin'en just glowered at her and she ran away to her car.

Annabeth thought his method was too cruel, as she was more favor of the idea of getting a picture of the shoplifters lifted from the camera feed, and then putting that face into a program that would cause a little light to start going off in the office, which would notify her that a shoplifter was present, and she could call the police and have the person arrested on charges of theft.

Asteria thought that, while it was certainly an amusing idea, it was much more amusing to watch Shin'en manhandle shoplifters like shoplifters were supposed to be manhandled.

A little known fact about retail places and shoplifters: they were untouchable.

Officially, if you ever saw someone stealing, you were to get a manager, but then what? If that person was gone, they were gone, and even if you caught them, what could happen next? They could pull a gun, or a knife, or they could simply engage in a battle of fisticuffs. It was the idea that if a person was dedicated enough to openly commit theft, then what else were they willing to do? To avoid any risk, managers were instructed to instruct their underlings to simply do nothing.

However, that's not an excuse to go load up a grocery cart of things and go strolling out to the parking lot.

Just because the employees are told not to do anything, that doesn't mean someone can't call the police.

As stated, that was what Shin'en did up until the beginning of October. When the month of Halloween arrived, it was a dreary Thursday with pouring rain and cold winds, making it a rather punishing outdoor environment. Now, one would think that in such conditions, a grocery store would become a ghost town due to people not wanting to get out in the weather, but as it turned out, it was the exact opposite.

Yorkshires was packed with people.

In Asteria's car, the telepath verbally lamented, "It never fucking fails."

Shin'en found himself questioning what he was seeing himself. "One would think that in weather like this, they would stay indoors."

"One would fucking think," Asteria said. One could tell how pissed off she was by how much she started cursing. When she was frivolously throwing around f-bombs, that meant she was coming unglued.

"These fucking lazy people are up here because they know that we'll take their groceries out for them. Walmart and Kroger would just tell them to have a nice day and leave them to the rain, but _we've_ got to be the good fucking Samaritans and take these peoples' shit out to their car for them. That mean they can just hop in and get nice and cozy with the heater while my boys slave away in the rain and have to call in sick because they all got colds."

Asteria might not have seemed like it, but she was a very protective mother hen. Her "boys" consisted of all the employees that worked on the front end, be they courtesy clerks, the fancy name for the bag boys, or cashiers. Asteria's number one pet peeve in the grocery store was people that disrespected her boys, which is why she had made it so they could fire back as they pleased and not worry about being fired or disciplined.

You might be wondering if there was a head manager at Yorkshires, or if it was Amelia.

It wasn't. There was an active store director, but they were mostly a figurehead, with their sole reason for employment being to take care of the managerial duties that Amelia didn't want to do. As such, the store director was more or less powerless in the face of the telepath's control over the store.

But yes, in bad weather like this, people from all over the suburb would come to Yorkshires because they knew they didn't have to worry about the groceries themselves. Like Amelia said, they could just hop into the car and get it running while some poor sap labored in the rain to put the groceries in the vehicle.

To add insult to injury, the customers rarely even said thank you for the additional service, having become accustomed to it, effectively pampered. It was an expectation to be catered to in such a way, and frankly, Amelia hated it.

She really did hate Yorkshire's little bag boy service, because it created a sense of entitlement in the people.

Shin'en had seen it too. There had been instances where some person would just stand there expectantly, waiting for someone to come along and start pushing their grocery cart along for them. He had even seen people just start heading out the door, only to stop and throw their arms up at seeing their grocery cart just sitting where it was.

It was perhaps the purest scene of entitlement Shin'en had ever been witness to.

Annabeth patted Asteria's leg. "Come on, we'd better get inside before it gets any worse."

With a derogatory hum from the bottom of her throat, Asteria grabbed the umbrella that sat in the cubby of her door, and Annabeth grabbed hers. Opening their doors, they extended the umbrellas, and then were both immediately aware of a crime against nature: none of the water was actually hitting them.

Asteria looked into the backseat, only to _not_ see Shin'en there, so she turned around and saw him just standing a few feet away, every single drop of rain curving around him. Asteria hesitantly lowered her umbrella, and was subject to the same phenomena. Annabeth did the same soon after.

"God's angel, remember?" Shin'en said with something that was almost a smirk. "Long list of powers."

"Uh-huh. Let's get inside before God decides to test our faith by suddenly letting us all get drenched."

"If that happens, then God will have effectively made you wet."

Asteria's cheeks turned faintly red. "A-Asshole."

Shin'en just made a sound that could've been considered a chuckle, before turning around with a dramatic flourish of his cloak.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

One inside, Asteria and Annabeth went to the water room next to the office, while Shin'en went straight to the back room, ignoring the massive throng of people eager to have someone take care of their groceries for them so they didn't have to worry about the rain.

Why Shin'en was about to do what he was about to do he didn't truly know himself. Considering his reaction to the twins' plight was barely a twitch of his brow, why he was going to such lengths for a bunch of mortal teens working in a grocery store was indeed a question of great pondering.

The Yorkshires backroom was hardly anything grand. There was the washing station for the market tools built into an alcove with the floor-cleaning equipment, and another alcove next to that for the market to use their computer to take care of their business, along with a metal closet used to store aprons and towels. In front of that alcove was a long row of assorted beverages.

There were two bays built into the far left wall for the delivery trucks to come in, and on the wall directly adjacent to the bay doors was the cardboard bailer, and right next to the bailer was the door to the dairy cooler. There was a break in the wall past the cooler, where chips and bread were stored en mass for the corresponding companies to put on the shelves themselves as per their contracts with Yorkshires. Also down in that break was all the levers and knobs used to control every utility in the store.

On the other side of that break in the wall was all the backstock racks. A small fleet of metal shelves and wheels, each whole shelf not even fifteen feet high. Further past the backstock wall was the deep freeze for ice creams, and there was an adjacent wall with another backstock rack, and on the other side of that wall was the breakroom. Across from the breakroom were the bathrooms, and further past those places were the doors to the produce department and their own cold storage.

None of the staff was back here at the moment, since the madhouse up front required all hands on deck.

Shin'en walked up to the backstock racks pulled one out of the line-up, and promptly pushed it over, causing a massive cascade of merchandise to tumble to the unyielding concrete ground. He repeated this process four more times, creating a lot of damaged goods. His actions also created a rather loud noise, which brought the nearby produce and market personnel running in through their doors, and they gaped at what they saw.

Shin'en ignored their looks and went up to the telephone hooked into the wall, and dialed 7-0 to take over the intercom.

He said, "I need _all_ courtesy clerks to the backroom, please. _All_ courtesy clerks to the backroom. _Immediately_."

Annabeth and Asteria had watched the whole thing unfold from the office security monitors, and they were both as wide-eyed as the market and produce people.

Asteria recovered first. "That absolute _chad_."

And so, all the courtesy clerks spent the next three hours, or going home when applicable, cleaning up the horrendous mess Shin'en had made, which created a lot of very angry people that actually had to do some work for themselves, and a lot of really smug cashiers who, while slightly vexed at having to bag all the groceries themselves, were completely smug over their friends no longer having to work in the freezing cold rain.

The managers were a little livid, but there wasn't much they could do in the face of the combined might of Shin'en and Asteria.

To make something of amends for the damage he caused, Shin'en opened up a register, having watched long enough to know how they operate.

Yorkshires only had eight checkout lanes, with one and two being furthest from the front doors, and they were only ever active in emergencies, high traffic, or another lane had broken down. Lane three was commonly used, and lanes four and five were self-checkout lanes, which frequently broke down because A) the system was old, and B) people were idiots and couldn't figure out to use them. Lane six was commonly used, and lane seven was primarily reserved for a manager or office cashier to use when things were busy, or a refund or trade needed to be completed, or just any general reason that a manager or office cashier could think to use.

Lane eight was _supposed_ to be the express lane, meaning twelve items or less, but that big hanging sign above the lane was frequently unheeded, either because people didn't read it, they didn't care, or they watched as cashiers called people down with large grocery carts on orders of the managers, because even the managers didn't heed the express lane sign.

Shin'en took up lane seven, and that was the official start of his technical groceryman career.

And many, many people were not treated with a happy smile that day.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That was not at all what Shin'en did every time he was in the store. He only got on lane seven when it got busy to spare Annabeth and Asteria the hassle of them coming out here themselves and leaving the office exposed.

Yes, it was a vexing thing for the office personnel to have to come onto the floor to help check people out, only for some yahoo to go up to the office and just stand there expectantly for someone to magically pop up and give them the time of day.

Something Asteria hated was that exact situation.

Clearly, there was no one in the office, but people would go stand up there anyway, and then give attitude when someone in the office finally found enough of a break in the onslaught of people to get back in there to do their office duties.

So, Shin'en did what he could to keep Asteria from ruining Annabeth's mood with negativity.

That wasn't an every day thing, though, and sometimes he rather enjoyed trolling the two.

No, there was another thing Shin'en could to entertain himself while not helping out with Yorkshires' front end, and that was go bother Hunter back in the market. Yes, Hunter and Gabe from the previous chapter both worked at Yorkshires, having both been hired on the spot by Amelia almost a year ago.

The reason Shin'en couldn't bother Gabe as much was because Gabe was a cashier, the head cashier, in fact, and was always typically too busy with the front end to stop down and chat, and Shin'en wasn't rude enough to get in the young man's way when he was on a mission to get done whatever he needed to get done.

Hunter on the other hand was much easier to interact with because, in his own words, this is what he did whenever he was working in the market:

"I get in here 'bout the same time 'steria and Annabeth do, grab some chicken from the deli, go to the breakroom and eat it, and then when three rolls around, I clock in, grab and apron, and for about the next hour I keep busy by facing all the lunchmeats and cold stuff we got. When that four o'clock hour comes 'round, a start getting the sinks back in the back filled up with soapy water, and I gather up all the trash and take it all out back to the dumpster. That shit stinks.

"After I get done with that, the sinks are filled up so I shut 'em off and get to work on taking apart the meat grinder. If Cole or John or Jim are still here, I gotta hold off on the power saw in case they need to cut something up real quick, so usually I go set all the grinder pieces in the water and let 'em soak while I take the water hose and hand-wash main body of the grinder. It's a pain in the ass.

"After I'm done with that, I go back and hose down the pieces, put 'em back on the cart, and then let them air dry for the rest of the night. Then I get to the saw, because that's usually when the other guy leaves, and then things get real fuckin' shitty. See, when the other guy's here, he takes care of the front and I can work in peace, when he's gone, I gotta stop whatever the fuck I'm in the middle of doing and go help Larry-head out. It's the single most annoying thing I ever gotta deal with back in here.

"But anyway. I take the saw apart and put the pieces in the water, hose down the machine and hand-dry it. When I'm done with that, I go hose down the saw parts and then let them airdry for the whole night, and then I go back and get all the cutting boards and knives and the tenderizer and let them soak, and then some cleaning shit and a rag and wipe down the tables, and when I'm done with that, I go back and wash the boards n' shit, and put them all back in place. All while being interrupted every thirty fuckin' seconds by some shitbag. Though sometimes I ignore that fuckin' service bell, and other times I actually don't hear it go off 'cause that water hittin' them metal parts is real loud.

"Usually by around the time I finish the cuttin' boards, it's six o'clock. Used to, I'd get all the closin' up done in one fell swoop, washin' the fuckin' dishes, putting up all the seafood, wrappin' up the display shit, wipin' down everything, and then finish up by moppin' the whole fuckin' floor which usually give me about an hour, a little more, to just sit back there in the chairs with my cookies and a coke and relax my ass off until eight come 'round and I can go home, but 'steria don' want me doin' that, so I wait until seven to get started with the displays."

Shin'en listened with rapt attention, as this was crucial information with messing with Hunter down the line. He noticed verbal tics in the Texan's speech, like how when he got to talking too fast his words got slurred, leaving off "G" sound in "ing," and how he always left off the first syllable in Asteria's name, moving straight to just "'steria.'"

Shin'en also noted how Hunter had one hell of a stutter, mixing up syllables in phrases and stumbling over his words. The above dialogue didn't show it, because that would've been a pain in the ass to write accurately.

"What do you when someone asks for seafood after you've put it all away for the night?" Shin'en asked.

Hunter grinned, his going a little wild, and that's when the shinobi became 100% sure that the Texas teen had a screw or two loose in his head.

"What I do? I feed 'em some bullshit about how we leave them on ice all day, and the mister we use to keep them fresh has got chemicals in it, and by the end of the day, after getting' sprayed with all them chemicals, they get kinda icky and we throw it out. I tell 'em we got some frozen in the deep freeze in the back, but I gotta warm it up in the boiler to kill the bacteria in the ice, but it'll take the boiler a few minutes to get going 'cause I done turned the muddafucker off. They buy it up and leave. It's awesome. 'Course, there's some dedicated muddafuckers that want it anyway, and if after all that you still want the shit, _then_ I go get it for ya'."

Shin'en enjoyed many a conversation with the outspoken conservative Texan native, mostly because Asteria told him to go ask Hunter about what he thought on the world's most sensitive subjects today.

Hunter never disappointed in any of his responses.

"Abortion?" the Texan asked with a raised brow as he was busy with his cleaning duties. "You sure you can handle that one?"

Shin'en recalled how he blew up a few abortion clinics in his Yūrei days, and performed a few himself with less than…clean…means.

"I'm sure I'll be fine."

Hunter shrugged. "Abortion is an excuse not to take responsibility for your fuck ups."

Shin'en's brow rose. "Explain."

"Babies are made by fucking, duh, but what everyone wants to deny is how much responsibility there is in fucking. Like God said, sex is between a man that is married to his wife, and that's it, and common sense says that sex is for when you and your spouse are financially able to deal with raising a baby. It's a system that's supposed to work; no sex until you're not only married, but you've got enough money to where it's not an issue if you get pregnant, but mankind being mankind decided that wasn't enough, so we made these things called contraceptives to prevent pregnancies, and it's already widely known that they're not 100% effective. Don't fuck, you don't have that problem.

"Back to the responsibility of fucking, there's a lot to it. You gotta make sure your girl don't gotta STD, and you gotta make sure _you_ don't gotta STD, that way you or whoever you fuck down the line don't get sick, and also like I said, the ultimate goal of fucking is a baby, and that's a whole lot of responsibility right there, with all them diapers and food and clothes and all that other shit. If you aren't able to handle all that, either financially or mentally, don't fuck. Simple as that.

"But, who cares, right? Who cares if you get pregnant on accident, like there's a hole in the condom or your pill didn't work? You can just go to the clinic and kill the baby and no besides a few hundred million people in the world will care."

"But what if the baby is harmful to the mother during development?"

"Like I said: there's a lot of responsibility to fucking. Before you and your wife go and fuck, you need to make sure there isn't any kind of natal problems, among whatever else there might be."

"But what if the parents aren't financially able to raise the child? Isn't it the good thing on their part to abort the child before it can enter a world of struggle and unwant?"

"No, because if the parents weren't able to afford the kid in the first place, they shouldn't have fucked, and the argument of the unwanted child is absolute bullshit because there are thousands of families in the adoption program waiting for kids to adopt because they can't have their own for whatever reason."

"But what if-"

Hunter overrode whatever Shin'en was about to ask with very clear, very emphasized words.

" _If. You. Can't. Support. The baby. Don't._ _ **Fuck**_. This is not a hard concept. Abortion is nothing but sweeping your fuck up under the rug and killing an innocent bystander, and I've already listed the major fuck ups: fucking when not married, fucking when you don't have the money, and fucking when you've got some disease. If people would stop fucking up and fucking when they ain't ready for a baby, there wouldn't be an abortion issue. If they did what God said, there'd be a lot less issues in the world. It's almost like…it's almost like God had this idea on how to make the world a better place, but mankind repeatedly gives God the finger, and the world seemingly becomes a worse and worse place. Funny stuff, right?"

"Right," Shin'en said dully. "Funny. What about raped women?"

"Ah, that might've been a good counter argument, except for the fact that it's reported that less than one percent for accounted abortions are due to rape."

"Reported."

Hunter spread his hands, conceding that point. "Yep, reported. All the facts and stats come from reports, so if those reports are inaccurate, then everything gets all fucked up, and we're screwed anyway. Any other questions?"

"Another counter argument for abortion is that the fetus isn't alive until a certain point, so it's technically not murdering a child."

Hunter barked a short laugh.

"HA! That's a scientific sentiment that's undermined by the simple fact that the combined size of an egg cell and a sperm cell makes them big enough to be seen without a microscope. Fuck, a human egg cell by itself can actually be seen without a microscope, because it's roughly a tenth of a millimeter. You'll strain your damn eyes, but you can see it if you look hard enough. In comparison, there are species of bacteria only a little over a hundred _nanometers_ in size, and if science is going to consider something that fucking small to be alive, then science _can't_ simultaneously declare the union of two gametes which make a zygote, also considered a living thing, to _not_ be alive. Put it this way: is scientists found bacterium on a space rock, they'd all go nuts declaring they found extraterrestrial _life_. Anymore questions?"

"None for today. Thank you for your time."

Shin'en left Hunter to finish his cleaning routine, his curiosity satisfied.

Personally, the Abyss had always thought of abortion as a sign responsibility, for it was the parents, or at least the mother, recognizing that she was unable the properly care for the child in her, and so she gave it a quick end before it was forced to endure a life of torment, but as Hunter had brought up: there were thousands of families world wide looking to adopt a baby.

So, Shin'en was left asking himself, if the justification for abortion was sparing the infant a hard life, did that justification still hold up against the ready-to-adopt families?

Further, a factor that Shin'en noted was always left out in these arguments, was the mother's attitude to what she had just done. Was she heartbroken over the fact that she had just killed her own child, or did she even care? Did she even see the fetus as her child, or just a parasite inside her, just a bug to be squashed?

Such thoughts led Shin'en to think of his own mother.

Sally Jackson had been scraping above the poverty line when she had become pregnant with him and his sister, having dropped out of high school for the sake of her Uncle Rich who had contracted cancer, leaving her to work jobs that paid very little due to her academic standing, or lack thereof. Even so, in the face of such little funds, she had chosen to keep him and his sister, and where she had managed Persephone just fine, could the same have been said if he had also been there?

Shin'en suddenly felt like a great weight was on him as he considered the possibility of what could have been should his mother have aborted either him, Persephone, or both of them. It was a great weight that came with the revelation that his life could have ended before he was born all because his mother could've decided she wasn't able to raise him alongside his sister.

That weight got even heavier when Shin'en realized that the situation he just described applied to Persephone as well, and he didn't know what to think about the world in which he lived and his sister died all because of Sally's decision.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Yorkshires hit a lull one day and so Shin'en went to go bother Hunter again.

"Gun control," was the simple two-word prompt.

Hunter looked up with an askew expression. "You're going to ask a conservative Texas man what he thinks about gun control?"

"Yes."

"It won't work. Control, by nature, doesn't work. We tried to control the consumption and distribution of alcohol back in the 20's, literally making alcohol illegal, and it was the greatest flop of all time. It also created a thriving criminal market. There's also the fact that there are several laws that make several things illegal, such as murder, theft, and crossing the border, but guess what happens in spite of those laws being there? People still do it.

"Gun control is by far the easiest argument ever, because there's a gigantic landslide of supporting evidence against it, and it's undermined by the simple fact that criminals, by nature, don't follow the fuckin' law. If they want guns to go kill people, they're going to get guns to go people, and if they can't get guns, they'll get something else. Golf clubs, baseball bats, chains, knives, etcetera-cetera. When that happens, what then? We go tell Tiger Woods he needs to turn in his clubs? Tell the whole of the MLB and NCAA and every select and little league and high school and everything thing that has to do with baseball that they need to give up their bats? _Fuck_ no.

"It's the same old, same old, though. It's people not wanting to accept facts and responsibility. It's not just some crazy person that needed therapy, it's not the _human being's_ fault, it's not the _other_ human being's fault; it's the _gun's_ fault. Yeah, there's not some grand societal flaw that needs to be addressed and fixed, like divorce creating stress on the kids, or work creating stress on the parents who then vent it on the kids. No, human beings are completely blameless in the case of gun control. Unless you're a human being in the NRA, then it's your fault. Anything else?"

"No. Enjoy your cleaning."

"I'll do my best."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next topic of conversation was an explosive one:

"What do you think of Islam?"

Hunter snorted.

"You mean the religion based off one schizophrenic guy who couldn't decide how his god created mankind so he made different stories about blood, clay, dust, nothing and sperm, and how the active enemies of Islam need to be beheaded, and how he's supposedly the first follower of Islam but he also talks about Moses, Abraham and Jacob, men thousands of years beforehand, also being the first believers of Islam, and that in one verse the world was created in six days and another verse says it took eight days, and how the guy who wrote it did so in just thirty years, and that the supreme, perfect being behaves like a human by hating those that hate him, as opposed to the other god that the entire religion is based on, who loves everyone regardless of whatever and wants them all to repent for their sins and love one another? Yeah, I think it has some problems.

"Like the very opening passages of the Quran detailing how Muhammad was _pressed_ or _squeezed_ by the angel Gabriel, because Gabriel basically brought a letter from Heaven and told Muhammad to read it, only Muhammad couldn't read because he was illiterate. So, Gabriel was like 'Read this,' and Muhammed was like, 'I can't read,' so Gabriel _pressed_ Muhammad three times so hard that the prophet felt like he was going to die. It turns that was all a dream sequence, and when Muhammed woke up he was so fucked up that he wanted to go jump off a mountain. Weird how Allah's chosen wanted to commit suicide in the face of being chosen, no? There's also the next passages where Muhammad says he feels like he's been possessed by a demon, and then there's his own biographer who literally says 'I fear he's been possessed by a demon.' There's also the tiny fact that despite talking about peace, Muhammad spread Islam by raising an army and conquering the Arabian Peninsula. All in thirty years."

Shin'en hummed. "You say very dangerous things."

Hunter looked at the demigod, very serious like. "What's dangerous to say is dependent on who you're with and where you're at. Right now, I'm with you at the back of a grocery store. Unless you're going to hurt me for something I say, what do I have to worry about? Conversationally, if we were at a liberal convention, then there'd be cause for concern."

Shin'en hummed again, and he turned to leave.

"Oh, and one more thing about what I think on Islam…"

The Abyss turned around, and he saw that wild look in Hunter's eyes.

"The Bible says that the Devil takes the form of an angel of light, and it's really funny how the Quran, a book written by a man who said he was visited and attacked by Gabriel in a dream, denounces Jesus Christ as the messiah. A coincidence, no?"

Shin'en realized very well the implications of what Hunter had just said, and he couldn't help but feel that he wasn't alone back here with the young man.

"…you say dangerous things."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next thing Shin'en asked Hunter was a loaded question.

It was also the last question, the last _major_ question, anyway, that he would ever get to ask the Texan.

"What do you think of gay marriage and gays in general?"

Hunter gave him an even more incredulous look than when he was asked about guns. "Dude, I'm Christian _and_ conservative. What in the _fuck_ do you _think_ I think about the gays?"

Shin'en shrugged. "I would like more detail."

"Okay then…well, for one, the three major religious texts in the world today, the Jewish Torah, Muslim Quran, and the Christian Bible all make it very clear that homosexuality is a no-no, so if you've got three major books telling you something is bad, then you should probably listen to them. Two, Freddy Mercury was gay, and he's a shining example of not just how all gay people should behave, but how all couples should behave; who you love is your business, and what you do behind closed doors is also your business. It is not your business, however, to go up and down the street announcing to the world what your sex life is like. When Freddy was out and about with whoever his boyfriend was at the time, he wasn't hugging all over him, sucking his face off, or even touching. He kept himself professional and acted like a man, unlike the gays of today who expect something from you when they tell you they fuck each other's assholes.

"Three, being gay is nasty, based purely on anatomy. When fucking, it's one dude putting his pisser up inside another dude's shithole, and I think that if that's what you want out of sex, a dick in your nasty ass or to put your dick in someone's nasty ass, then you might want to seek help. Four, being gay is unnatural, and it's even backed by science."

Shin'en rose a brow. "Explain."

"Okay, so, bear with me and follow along: human beings are classified as animals, right? And all animals come with natural instincts, like the need to feed, fight or flight, sleep, waste expulsion, and reproduction. If you were born without the glands necessary to stimulate hunger, would you agree that there's something wrong with you?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Would you agree that is you were born without the adrenaline gland, and your body didn't react to stressful situations to set up the flight or flight response, would you agree that there's something wrong with you?"

"Yes."

"Alright, now: you agree that there's something wrong with your body when it doesn't stimulate hunger or flight or fight, now what about if your body didn't tell you it was tired, but it was exhausted and worn out anyway, like, you could've just ran five miles and you're completely dehydrated and your muscles drowning in lactic acid, but you don't feel a thing."

"I'd say you have nerve damage."

"Agreed. So, you agree in that there's something wrong with you if your body doesn't tell you that you're hungry, sleepy, or in danger. Now, really pay attention to this one: when reaching sexual maturity, or puberty, you start noticing things about people. Muscle mass, cellulite content, aesthetics. All of that based on the primal instincts of seeking a good mate for strong offspring to carry on the species. Now, if you're in puberty, or at any stage of your life, and you're looking at the _same_ sex in a reproductive way, even though you _know_ you can't reproduce with them, therefore denying your body's natural desire to reproduce effectively, would you also agree that there's something wrong with you?"

Shin'en broke everything down and summarized it. "If your body does not produce hunger stimulates, there's a problem. If your body does not react to stress appropriately, such as increased heartrate and breathing, adrenaline, there's something wrong. If your body doesn't register fatigue, even when you're on your last legs and on the verge of death, your body is screwy. And now you're asking if I think that if your body isn't seeking viable reproductive means, and is instead actively gravitating towards something you cannot reproduce with, there's an error somewhere?"

"Yes."

It was simple to Shin'en: instincts were meant to keep you alive. Reproductive instincts were no different, as they were designed to further the species. If you were actively _not_ doing that on your own volition, beyond stupid societal excuses like "I just can't find the right girl," then there was fundamentally something wrong with your brain chemistry.

But Shin'en wasn't done. He wanted to test something.

With a blazingly fast motion, he reached out and grabbed the front of Hunter's shirt, and yanked him forward. Instead of being terrified, Hunter instead gained that same psychotic look in his eyes.

"Did I touch a nerve?"

Shin'en, not even a foot away from the young man's face, said coldly, "My sister is gay and is currently enjoying a homosexual relationship with someone that she loves very much. They are happy, they compliment each other, and they keep their relationship private and don't bother anyone as much as they can. No kissing in public, no hugging, no holding hands, nothing at all to suggest they're anymore than a pair of friends. They both lead good lives and are two of the nicest people I know, and they never, _ever_ bother anyone with their relationship, and you're trying to tell me that there's something _wrong_ with them?"

Hunter's lips curled upward. "Damn straight, motherfucker. They say don't be surprised to find trouble if you go lookin' for it, well don't get pissed when you come to _me_ for answers to your questions and then exactly what you asked for. Now get the fuck off me before I cut your fuckin' dick off."

As it so happened, he had grabbed a nearby steak-cutting knife when Shin'en had grabbed him, and he was holding the blade to the demigod's crotch.

Shin'en let Hunter go and immediately schooled himself. "Well done. I expected you to beg for mercy."

"Hn, and for a second there I thought you were actually serious." Hunter put the knife back in its place.

"If I was being serious, you would not be alive."

With that Shin'en took his leave, and because he turned around, he missed Hunter's eyes going completely black, little lights like stars erupting in the voids.

"Don't be so sure of that, Dragon Ghost of the Abyss…"

Hunter's eyes went back to normal and he got back to work on finishing his cleaning duties.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That was the last major question Shin'en asked Hunter, because the Christmas break came around by that point, and Hunter, Gabe, their friends Kiran and Ethan, all went out to celebrate Christmas themselves with a trip to Wing Stop followed by a trip to the nearest ice cream place for some shakes, and then they went around the suburbs to look at the Christmas lights.

They were going through a back road in the countryside, going around a corner with a big house and a big thick fence on the inside curve when an intoxicated and high drive in a big heavy duty Ford came flying around that corner, having crossed the double yellow line, and smashed right into Gabe's SUV, killing him, Hunter, Kiran, _and_ Ethan in a head-on collision.

Asteria and Annabeth were both devastated at the loss of their two friends, and Shin'en himself felt a degree of anger rise in him at this turn of events.

The only thing that saved the offending driver from the two-fold wrath of the telepath and the demigod was that he had also died in the crash. He hadn't been wearing his seatbelt and had gone flying through the windshield into a tree head-on, and effectively crushed his skull and crumpled his spine.

During the Christmas break, Shin'en met Gabe's and Hunter's parents at their respective funerals, and was there to help bury the two Texans.

It was a few days after this, up in Asteria's room, on Christmas day, that Shin'en celebrated the first Christmas since the Blood War.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was a subdued atmosphere. Annabeth and Asteria were still reeling from the sudden deaths of Hunter and Gabe, just days prior, but they were covering it up with a pair of false smiles and fabricated happiness in the wake of exchanging the gifts they had bought for one another.

Asteria had gotten Annabeth a solid gold chain made of heart-shaped links with a solid gold heart-shaped locket with a picture inside of the two of them with their faces mashed together, taking a selfie with silly looks on their faces.

Annabeth had gotten Asteria a simple picture frame with a photo of Poseidon, a Navy captain in this world, standing erect and serious in uniform.

They were sitting in front of Asteria sofa, leaning against it with bottles of Frostie Root Beer in their hands, taking idle sips now and then, making little small comments about things.

See, during the funeral, they had both absolutely refused to cry. To accomplish this, their brains completely shut down their emotional centers, and they had yet to be rebooted. And it annoyed the ever-loving piss out of Shin'en.

Their friends died, whoopty doo. He had lost everyone he ever loved and cared for, not once, but _three_ fucking times, the first being all the orphans he grew up with, the second being Yūrei, and the third being his Cloud family, consisting of Yugito, Bee, Darui, Cee, Ei, the now-Fourth Raikage, and Ay, the late Third Raikage. They were considered the third family because Shin'en hadn't recognized them as such until after he recognized Yūrei as his second family.

"Fuck this," the shinobi said.

He rose to his feet and took three measured steps forward and then yanked the lovers off the ground by the fronts of their t-shirts. They were both startled to their cores.

"Both of you _sicken_ me right now. Instead of mourning for your friends, you've locked away your tears and have dishonored their memory with your behavior in the past days. It ends _now_." Shin'en's lids folded up, exposing the maximum amount of eye, completing the image of how severe he was in this matter.

Even without the power of his Sharingan—useless in this world without chakra or Mist—his eyes still held a deep power to them, and that power shot straight into Annabeth's and Amelia's souls. Annabeth's face turned red, and then the tears started to fall. Asteria managed to last but a mere microsecond later before her barriers also fell apart.

Shin'en moved his arms around them, and they both buried their faces into the crooks of his neck as they let over three days of pent-up emotion regarding over three years of memories come spilling out. Shin'en remained completely stoic, having not become as attached as the two crying on him were.

If anything, he was annoyed because there were still some things he had wanted to ask Hunter.

Eventually, Amelia and Annabeth's tears ran dry, and they both went back to their spots on the floor, looking exhausted with how much water they just expelled, but they were looking better, like a weight was gone from them.

"Good, now that you're both back, I can give you my presents."

"Wait, what?" Asteria hiccupped. "Presents? You told us not to get you anything, but you got us stuff?"

"Yes."

Annabeth crossed her arms and suffered through a quick sniffle before she said. "You asshole."

"Yes."

"What'd you get _me_ for Christmas?" Ryuk asked.

Shin'en ignored the Shinigami, like he had been for the past several months. Besides, the Death God more or less just did his own thing nowadays.

The demigod went around his recliner and came back around with two packages, one just a little red and green handbag, the other a medium-sized box wrapped entirely in Christmas-themed paper. Shin'en handed the box to Annabeth, and the handbag to Asteria.

They both stared at the presents, then at each other, then at Shin'en.

"Go on. Open them."

They did so, and they both quickly realized they had been punked.

" _Testosterone_ pills?" Asteria asked incredulously.

"You think that's bad? Look what he got _me_."

Annabeth beheld a big box of 34-count Goodnites.

Under the collar of his cloak, Shin'en's smirk was grand.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On this mid-February Saturday, Shin'en was nearly besides himself with internal glee. After so many weeks of nothing but the standard retail stories of people thinking they could get their way because reasons, only for Shin'en and the rest of the front end to completely shut them down, things were getting stale.

Not this day, however, because apparently there were some enterprising individuals who thought they could pull off a smash and grab robbery of a grocery store. Lots of problems with that idea, considering a grocery store had a lot of traffic in and out, was a big place with a lot of people about, and lot of opportunities for Murphy's Law to present itself.

In this case, Murphy's Law was embodied by Shin'en, praise be unto him.

A group of no less than eight armed men wearing the traditional ski masks came running in, Kevlar over their chests, and Shin'en met them at the door.

"So, boys, how's the health plan?"

There wasn't a chance to finish the quote introduced to him by Asteria the other day from some web series regarding an anime, because Shin'en immediately went to town with his five-foot long black staff.

Minutes later, after the police had arrived, the officer was finishing his report with Shin'en.

"So, you saw them coming in on the video feed?"

"Yep."

"And instead of calling us immediately, you instead met them at the door here?"

"Mm-hm."

"And you proceeded to beat them into pain-induced comas with your walking stick."

"Correct."

The officer, a dishonorably discharged Marine, just like the majority of the police in this area, as all were personally recruited by Marian Janssen to be her own private military, just nodded. "Sounds good to me. Have a nice day."

"Today has been a good day," Asteria commented.

"Agreed."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A few weeks later, in the middle of April, it was not a good day.

That reason entirely from Annabeth.

More specifically, her work ethic.

Where it came from, Asteria and Shin'en did not know. Her biological mother had given her up at birth, and her biological father had yet, over the course of the past eighteen years, to ever say he loved her. That sounded like an exaggeration, but it wasn't. At all. Sure, he changed her diapers and fed her and bathed her and did all the basic parenting things, but that was it. Annabeth's stepmother had certainly not instilled in her this work ethic.

Near as Asteria could tell, Nurse Goodwin, the woman that had counseled Annabeth years back when she had her first period in the middle of class, had been the source for Annabeth's work ethic, but the woman hadn't really taught the blonde about working, more about ethics and philosophy than anything else.

The ethic Annabeth had was nothing short of godlike. No matter what obstacles there were, or what the situation was, she completed whatever was expected of her. There had been many a night that the delivery truck came in, and she would insist on operating the pallet jack against Shin'en or Asteria's offering to do so. There had been nights in which the three of them stayed well past the closing time, performing the operation of facing the store, in that they went up and down every aisle and made everything look pretty, not leaving until Annabeth was satisfied with the sum total of all the work.

Today in particular was yet another example of Annabeth's startling drive to finish.

Simply put, she was on her period, and hers, as every girl could attest, was different than anyone else's. She didn't get cramps, or experience mood swings, or become incredibly horny, or undergo just about anything else a normal period entailed, but, as it so happened, in exchange for not having any of the described above, it all got translated into her flow.

After her first period, in which she had been wearing her Goodnite, which had saved her from the public humiliation of bleeding through her pants in front of a bunch of ornery preteens, that had become the secondary use of the bedwetting pull-ups. While she _never_ used them for bodily functions, she did use them during her cycle as they were effectively a pad, only bigger, and it also served to cut down on the collection she had built over the years as per her psychological problems.

Or used to, anyway.

With the coming of the end of the year came the coming of the initiation of the plan. The plan was to leave New York behind forever, leave behind Sally and Marian, and take enough money to live comfortably in a quiet, remote home in the borderline wilderness. The plan was to leave every facet of this life behind and start a new life.

Part of the old life was the Goodnites, and Annabeth had been taking strides to break her fixation on them. Her biggest stride was forgoing their use during her period and instead switching to a pad-and-tampon combo.

It effectively did not work.

Annabeth had already overflowed both and blood was steadily making its way down the insides of her pants, staining the khaki material, but she dared not stop in her duties in attending to the people who were coming up to the office, even though she was pale and shaking from how much blood she had already lost.

Asteria was tightly clenching her fist at her girlfriend's stupidity, but she dared not interfere because she knew Annabeth would reem her ass for it later, and Shin'en was watching on a hair trigger.

"H-Have a n-nice d-day," Annabeth managed a smile at the person she just helped, and the next person came up in a line four deep. "Hello, how can I…" Annabeth had to take a breath at the sudden wave of fatigue that came over her, "how can I help…oh no…"

Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and Shin'en caught her before she fell.

"The office is now closed," he said in a dark voice.

The person nodded and speed-walked away in terror.

Not bothering to tell Amelia anything, not even caring about who saw, Shin'en deconstructed his and Annabeth's body into water vapor and crossed the several-mile distance between Yorkshires and his own bought-and-paid-for house in the undesirable section of the neighborhood. Once there, he immediately set to work on making sure Annabeth didn't die of blood loss with all the effectiveness and seriousness of a trained doctor.

It was minutes later that Asteria came peeling into the driveway and ran in through front door, and happened across…a sight.

Annabeth's ruined pants and underwear, the hygiene products still inside, lay discarded on the floor, and the teen herself was sleeping on Shin'en's couch, on top of a towel, completely naked from the waist down, her vagina packed with something Asteria had never seen before, and a little squiggly tattoo over the skin of her vulva. Her color had returned, but Asteria wasn't seeing that right now.

She was seeing her girlfriend halfway naked in someone else's home, with that someone sitting in the nearby recliner reading a newspaper. The panic of the previous situation combined with the absurdity and perception of the present situation, and Asteria blew up.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE!? WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY GIRLFRIEND!? YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"

Emotion was the natural enemy of logic, and Shin'en wasn't about to tolerate being yelled at by someone so far inferior to him that a strong enough sneeze would send them flying away.

Shin'en pinned Asteria to the wall in the blink of an eye, careful not crush her. He said very clearly and very coldly into her ear, "Do _not_ speak to me ever again like that. All I've done is packed her vagina to keep anymore blood from leaking, and applied a Redirection Seal to her genital area to redistribute the blood back into her body."

Shin'en removed his hand from Asteria's throat and backed. The telepath nodded. "Sorry. I-"

"Was panicking? Yes, I realize."

"…we cool?"

"Yes."

"Is she alright?"

"She'll be fine. She needs food and fluids, though."

Asteria nodded, quite subdued now, and went over to the sleeping beauty, planting a kiss to her forehead. When she turned around, she squeaked and very stiff as Shin'en's sword, tip pointed to the ground, suddenly fell from above and glided through her shirt and skirt, just narrowly missing her breasts and the last remnant of her male nature.

This time, Shin'en's eyes were glowing a soft red.

"If you ever yell at me again, I will correct your confused anatomy."

Asteria could only nod.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For the first time in his life, at the beginning of May, Shin'en entered a church.

A Christian one, anyway.

Asteria was standing outside the doors to the worship center, clad in the finest dress that she owned, her face adorned with most expensive makeup on the planet, all of it perfectly applied to highlight and bring out the very best of her face.

From inside, the chiming of the classic wedding theme could be heard. Why the church played such a melancholy tune for an event like this, Shin'en did not know. He approached his dimensional counterpart, and when she heard him coming, she looked up and her jaw dropped.

For this event, Shin'en had forgone his usual blue pants and sandals, his white leg warmers with the stirrups, and his favored Akatsuki cloak. In its place were a pair of polished Oxford dress shoes, so maintained that a girl could do her makeup in the reflection. Neatly pressed black slacks covered his legs, a black button down was tucked in, and all of it was wrapped up with a leather belt. Over the shirt was a simple black jacket with buttons just as black.

The color to the midnight ensemble was the crimson tie around neck and trailing under the jacket.

Shin'en had pulled his hair into a regal, low-hanging ponytail, pulling it all from his face.

All in all, he looked like the don of a mafia.

Asteria being Asteria, said this when Shin'en was in earshot, "If I was a real girl, I'd totally be wet for you right now."

"We are in a church," Shin'en said lowly, unimpressed and unfazed. "Show the proper respect."

With the occasion in question, and the sheer command in his voice, Asteria just nodded instead of coming up with a snarky response.

Inside the worship center, the congregation sat down, and that was their cue. Shin'en opened the door and offered his arm. With so many years of ladylike etiquette training under her belt, Asteria took the offered arm, gracefully sliding her hand into place, and allowed Shin'en to lead her inside down the aisle, to where their designated seats were for this event.

"Church family," the pastor said from the baptismal chamber up past the pulpit, his voice magnified by microphone. "Annabeth has been a member of our church for several years now and has gone above and beyond what any of us could have expected, and is an exemplary follower of Christ."

The blonde, clad in a white gown, had to smile in embarrassment at the praise.

The pastor gently gripped Annabeth's hands before her, and raised his right hand.

"Annabeth, I baptize you, my sister in Christ, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…"

The pastor put Annabeth's hands over her nose, his other hand on her back, dunked her under and brought her back up in very experienced motion.

"…raised to walk in newness of life," the pastor finished to the unanimous standing, clapping, whistling, and cheering of the packed worship hall.

Even Asteria, the emotionally charged atheist, was going absolutely apeshit.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The observing Greeks were all just so confused at this point. To them, it seemed as if Shin'en was going to forgo everything and live out the rest of his days with Asteria and Annabeth, and to be honest, that was just perfectly okay with most of them. Some were of the mind that Shin'en had been through enough, their opinions of him having changed during this little movie, and that he deserved this presented happiness. Others thought it was going to be fantastic that he was going to be out of their hair forever.

Obviously, both cases and the few others that existed, did not come to pass, and the great question was: why not? Just _what_ happened to where this shining trio of friends seemingly fell apart?

They quickly got their answer when they saw… _it._

When they saw Annabeth get kicked out of her house in the middle of a hurricane. When they saw her make her way, on foot, to Asteria's mansion. When they saw Marian Janssen the Director effecitvley finger-rape Asteria's asshole and blackmail her into not just _breaking up_ with Annabeth, but condemn her. When they saw Annabeth completely shatter and throw herself, and the baby inside her, off the side of a bridge in a succeful suicide attempt. When they saw Asteria and Shin'en go on a warpath, slaughtering indiscriminately the stepmother and father and stepsiblings of Annabeth, and then everyone inside the mansion as well.

And then the Greeks saw Asteria die, and they saw… _it_.

They saw the Dragon Ghost of the Abyss spread his wings and take flight, his thirteen heads and thirteen tails unleashing destruction across one _billion_ dimensions, effortlessly destroying massive swaths of alternate Earths.

And then it was all over.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The throne room of Olympus was completely silent as the whole populace, including the twelve gods plus Hades and Hestia, the hundred-plus campers, the thirty-plus Hunters, the two hundred-plus wayward demigods, and Paula and Sally, all sat in rigid positions with their backs arched and their head tilted back, their eyes lulled inward with their lids halfway closed.

And then they all snapped back to reality as all the memories they just saw came crashing down into their brains, which had varying effects.

Zeus had a complete meltdown with the freshest of his memories being of his nephew releasing so much power that he broke the dimensional plane of destroyed a billion different worlds. That power terrified the sky king to no end—he just couldn't comprehend anyone having _that_ much power that wasn't him!—and he acted on sheer instinct.

His instincts screaming at him to kill this gigantic threat to him and his sovereign throne before it could wake up and devour him.

With dilated, bloodshot, horrified eyes, Zeus let out a piercing shriek and stabbed forward with his Master Bolt. Chaos was unleashed as other gods came to their senses and moved to stop Zeus, but they were too slow. Persephone threw herself over her brother's body with a scream.

Erebus and Susano'o stood where they were, the former as stoic as ever, the latter grim and serious.

Show time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Sorry about that long, long wait, but 11k is a lot of words.**_

 _ **Fun fact: this is the second chapter I've written that's over 11k, the first one being Chapter 36 of**_ **Backup Plan** _ **.**_

 _ **I hope you enjoyed it.**_

 _ **I did say previously this was going to be primarily about Shin'en handling customers in retail, but that got boring as I was thinking about it in my head, and I made this gem instead. Besides, this chapter felt closer to home, more serious, more emotion-invoking.**_

 _ **Also, an off-topic question that's been bugging me: if a team consisting of Star Lord, Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spiderman, Mantis, Nebula, and Drax could beat Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet (they did have him beat, and would've got the Gauntlet off if Quill didn't get stupid), then would a team consisting of Shin'en, Asteria, Leviathan, Kraken, Tobi, and Assassin definitely beat Thanos with the Gauntlet?**_

 _ **Next chapter is the fallout chapter, not entirely sure how it's going to go myself, but I'll figure it out. After that chapter, the last one sets up the third and final segment of the**_ **Backup Plan** _ **saga, then it's a long hiatus while I work on my novel, and then I'll mop up what's left of**_ **Green-Eyed Ghoul,** _ **and flip a coin as to whether I turn my attention to**_ **Sea Devil or Transcendence.**

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A hand came out of nowhere and stopped Zeus' Bolt _cold_ , in the hands of its powerful master no less. A blinding light engulfed the throne room, accompanied by the loudest, most horrible screeching sound of all time. Amid the luminescence and the noise, Zeus tracked the offending hand to an arm, and went up that arm to look into a pair of very, very, very, _very,_ _ **very**_ angry red eyes.

Zeus barely had time to realize how fucked he was before the unthinkable happened: his Master Bolt, _the_ most powerful weapon of this universe, as established by Uncle Rick himself, was snapped in half.

Susano'o's Rinnegan instantly teleported the resulting blastwave released by such a mighty weapon being broken to the edge of the Observable Universe before it could travel so far as inch and literally destroy the whole planet.

Right after this, Zeus took a fist to the face blasted him clear out of not only the throne room, but right off the side of Olympus and beyond.

The room was silent as Shin'en stood there in all his terrifying glory, his hand smoking from taking on the Master Bolt. Funnily enough, the meat of his palm had melted away, and the underlying bone had blackened, an injury that should've killed him from the shock alone, but he was far too… _off_ …to be affected by pain right now.

"Percy…" Persephone said, very tentatively.

The demigod's eyes were overshadowed by his bangs, a clear indicator of the danger about him right now, how volatile he was.

"None of you…" his voice reverberated about the entirety of the throne room, ringing clearly and coldly.

"None of you…should have seen… _any_ of that…"

"Percy-" Persephone started to say, but he unceremoniously up and vanished in a swirl of water.

"Is he…is he going to be okay?" Sally asked.

Persephone looked at her mother, and she honestly had no idea. So, she vanished in her own swirl of water, shocking everyone that saw.

Percy's big sister coalesced on a certain cliff, one with a familiar oak tree.


	53. Sweet Sixteen

_Sweet Sixteen_

 _ **We are now officially back to the present, and will be dealing with all the psychological trauma that comes with watching the psychological trauma of a preteen boy running black-ops in a civil warzone…or lack thereof.**_

 _ **The Greeks weren't really meant to see all that, even in canon, as the only thing that was supposed to be seen was Shin'en's talk with Luke, but even that didn't get seen. It'll be covered here though.**_

 _ **Anyway, on to the fun!**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _August 18, 2009_

 _Olympian throne room_

The whole room was numb. Too numb for even the rudest and snarkiest of people to poke fun at Annabeth for that other version of her wearing diapers. Honestly though, who _wouldn't_ be numb after watching that in third person.

It was one thing to _read_ it, like you did, it was another thing to _see_ it.

Now, in a K or K+ story, it would've been easy to say that all the Greeks had these happy lives with their mortal families, their mortal stepsiblings, they had puppies and got to go on fun vacations….Yeah, that was true in many circumstances, but this was an MA story, and such a project requires appreciation for a greater scope.

No, there was not a demigod alive in any pantheon that went through anything even remotely similar to what Shin'en did, but there were still dozens that had their sob stories. Abusive parents, life on the streets, some witnessed death, some dispensed death to save themselves, some were even raped by various parties.

Proof of that was in the otherwise "wayward" demigods, the massive sect of half-bloods that rose up against Olympus in the name of revenge against their deadbeat parents.

The reason for the inclusion of this insight was to make it clear that there were some hard hitting motherfuckers out there, and even those kids couldn't work up any kind of will to say a word about anything.

However, the person that was most shaken was obviously Sally, for obvious reasons.

Her circumstance needed no explanation.

Annabeth was holding the mother of her girlfriend's hand, providing what comfort she could in the wake of these things. She herself was shaken up, not only at just seeing another version of herself so similar yet so different, but to see herself _jump off a fucking bridge_. Not just that, but to see her as good as friends as she was with Shin'en…

Annabeth would not lie: the little brother of her girlfriend terrified her. It was a daily fear of hers that she would do something wrong, and he would uncaringly gut her. She wanted to be nowhere near him at all times, a hundred miles if she could ever help it. During that whole Titan's Curse thing, Annabeth honestly could've used one of her other self's diapers she was so scared of Shin'en's presence.

And then to see herself not just _friends_ with that murdering, barbaric monster, but to be so close to him as to walk around without pants on, ask him to attend her _baptism_ —still trying to wrap her head around that one— _and_ not slap him across the face for disrobing her lower half to attend to her menstrual cycle.

Now that Annabeth's brain was starting to boot back up, she realized that no less than three hundred people and some gods had seen her bloody genitals.

Now she felt really dirty.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun was just barely starting to make its climb out of the Eastern horizon. It was still cool out, and the waves could be heard swashing about below.

Persephone went around the oak tree and sat down next to her little brother. He didn't say anything to her, and she didn't say anything to him; she just grabbed his hand in hers and held it. After so long, he leaned over and put his head onto her shoulder.

Persephone looped her arms under his and pulled him into her lap.

It was a testament to how fucked he was in the head right now that he didn't make a sound or movement of protest. He just let it happen. Once in place, he rested his head in the crook of Persephone's neck, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

Persephone was hurting, hurting for him. He was _strong_ , powerful, wise, dignified, noble, regal, refined, cool, controlled, and a bunch of other things, but right now, at this moment, he was _vulnerable_.

He had been stripped bare, he had been flayed apart, his wounds had been uncovered, his defenses and been ripped down, and his secrets exposed.

Effectively, his image had been destroyed. It wasn't an ego thing, or a reputation thing, but a _real_ thing. That image he had, of the cold, unstoppable, super powerful badass, all done in the effort of protecting _her_ by deterring any hostile forces, was now totally ruined by what everyone had just seen.

Now, he seemed to all just an emotionally unstable little boy with abandonment issues.

However, there was a small part to Persephone that was…happy. Happy about this situation. It was a very small part, about the size of a sand grain, and it was her id, the part that desired what her super-ego said she couldn't have, and what Persephone wanted, down there deep in her own personal darkness, was her little brother.

Not necessarily an evil thought by any means, but it was the possessive nature of the desire that sprung forth the error.

She wanted him to be totally dependent on her; she wanted him to come to her with every problem that he had, every question that popped into his mind, she wanted to help him with every little thing he had to do. Persephone wanted to mother her little brother, guide him and direct him— _control_ him. In simpler terms: Persephone wanted her brother all to herself and not share him with anyone.

Kind of like a prized doll.

Persephone wasn't consciously aware of these thoughts, as they were subconscious desires buried deep, deep within her psyche, but she knew that there was a tiny part of her that was enjoying holding him and having all to herself in his time of need.

Persephone suddenly felt a foreign wetness reach her collarbone, and she looked down to see something that broke her heart: her brother crying.

By no means were the tears just pouring down his face, nor were his shoulders shaking as he was racked with sobs, and there wasn't any snot dripping from his nose and his lips weren't trembling or anything to suggest that he was truly crying, but there were still tears steadily falling from his eyes one drop every few seconds.

For him, with all the emotional strength he had cultivated, this might as well have been a complete meltdown.

Persephone pulled him even tighter in the face of these tears, and he wrapped his free arm tightly around her shoulder, and for the first time in her life, she truly felt like his big sister.

Eventually, he stilled and she knew he had fallen asleep. Almost as if her body had been going on nothing but the wait for that moment, now that it was here, Persephone suddenly felt completely exhausted. Not even bothering to fight it for any reason, she adjusted her brother in her lap and rested her head on top of his.

For the only the second time in their sixteen years of life, the twins fell asleep in each other's embrace.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back on Olympus, while the twins had their moment, Erebus and Susano'o were off to the side, just being there. Then the God of Darkness noticed someone standing on the other side of him.

"Father."

"Son," Chaos said.

"You look like Hunter."

"Yes, quite interesting that the form I've been taking all throughout my time in this universe is an exact match to the one revealed in DI's birthday surprise YouTube thingy. Almost like there's a connection there."

"Why are you here, Father?"

"My goodness, my all-knowing secondborn son isn't actually all-knowing. Have you not been praying to our Lord and Savior for guidance?"

"Father."

"Oh, alright….Do the thing."

"…which thing?"

" _The_ thing."

" _That_ thing?"

"No, the other that thing."

"Oh."

And so Erebus did the other that thing, and people in throne room started to get weird looks on their faces because they were feeling _stuff_ right now, but they couldn't remember why they were feeling it. The present thirteen gods, Luke, Sally, and Annabeth were privy to a little voice in their heads telling them that they got the extreme pleasure of remembering everything they just witnessed, while everyone else only got to remember the fact that they had just taken a trip through Shin'en's head with what they saw being so horrifying that their brains buried the memories to spare them the trauma.

Besides, they weren't meant to have seen any of that anyway.

Then Chaos grinned manically and waved his hand, putting the gods and demigods to sleep, bringing Zeus back to his throne and giving him his repaired Bolt back, setting the stage for the festivities of the very near-future.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Zeus came to, he noticed several things: he was back in his throne, his Bolt was fixed, the rest of his family were in their respective thrones, sans Ares and Aphrodite, Hades was here, Hestia was at the hearth looking very happy, and occupying his throne room were two distinct sections of the kinds of chairs you typically see at social gatherings.

One side, the smaller side, was occupied clearly by the residents of Camp Half-Blood, given the bright orange shirts, and the Hunters of Artemis. The other side, the much larger side, was occupied by demigods wearing armor and street clothes, clearly of an allegiance not to Olympus, which could only mean one thing…

Zeus also noticed the tension in his house, which served the strengthen the opinion of his theory on who these other half-bloods were.

"Good morning," a voice said, and Zeus looked down to see none other than his infamous nephew sitting in a more regal chair than the other half-bloods, his twin sister at his left, and the traitor leader at his right.

The king of the gods gripped his bolt tighter, but a strong hand clamped down on his wrist, and he looked at Poseidon, ready to fight, but that wind was torn free from his sails when he saw the absolute seriousness on the sea god's face.

Zeus exhaled and looked down his nose at the defiant demigod that he wanted in his bed, moaning his name in submission. "What is going on, Shin'en Yūrei?"

The demigod was lounging in his chair with a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, one leg crossed over the other, his right arm pulled through the sleeve of his cloak to rest in the crook of the buttons. A small part of Zeus was proud that his kin was able to look so majestic and regal, despite only being half god.

"We are discussing terms of surrender," Shin'en answered.

Zeus' eyes traveled to Luke, who remained sitting straight, with his eyes forward. The sky king felt that something was not quite what it seemed, and so he did not jump to conclusions. Instead, he asked, "What are the traitor's terms, then?"

"Oh, not their surrender. They have already decided to join with Camp Half-Blood and get to know their siblings better. We are discussing _your_ terms of surrender."

Zeus read the room, and he could see the pain and discomfort present in his family. Immediately, he wanted to get angry and start shouting, remind this puny half-blood who was in charge with a display of power, but he restrained himself. He did not remain king of this mountain for four thousand years by solely throwing around muscle. His position required cunning and patience, and so he would exercise both until the opportune moment presented itself.

" _My_ terms? The war was won in our favor, was it not? Kronos has been defeated, Typhon is back in Tartarus along with the other Titans, and their army has scattered."

"Yes, my sister did an excellent job in positioning the demigod forces about Manhattan and holding the city until I arrive and mopped up what was left. However, when you say _our_ favor, I assume you mean the favor of you and yours, as well as the demigods?"

"Obviously."

"That is where you are wrong. The war was not won in _our_ favor, by your definition, but in _our_ favor, defined as the children of the Olympians fighting against their own siblings in order to protect their failures of parents."

Ah, so that was what this was about: the classic annoying argument about gods and their mortal offspring. Zeus resisted the urge to massage his temples in the face of the tedium this would bring.

To keep good face, Zeus played along with the situation. In a serious voice that made it seem like he cared about the proceeds, he asked, "What are your terms then, nephew?"

Shin'en chuckled. It was a deep, slow sound that reverberated throughout the whole of throne room. It was magnified by the lack of any other noise in the throne besides the soft crackling of Hestia fire.

"You don't take me seriously, Uncle. Tell me, do you know what day it is?"

Zeus raised a brow, wondering the significance of such an inane question. "August 18, 2009."

"Yes, do you know what that means for my sister and I?"

And then it began to dawn on the sky king what kind of precarious situation he was actually in. "Your birthday," Zeus said grimly.

Shin'en smiled predatorily. "Exactly. _Today_ is the day of prophecy, in which a half-blood child of the eldest gods has reached sixteen against all odds, and will sometime in the next fifteen hours make a choice that shall end his days, either preserving Olympus, or razing it."

Shin'en's eyes gleamed just a little manically. "So I hope you all got me and Seph lots of great presents, or I might just yank this floating rock out of the sky."

There were some snorts and other sounds of humor from the demigods at the joke, but Zeus swallowed heavily, uncharacteristically feeling like a mouse being dangled by the tail over the jaws of a hungry cat.

There had been many interpretations by Athena and other gods over the centuries as to what the lines of the Great Prophecy could mean, such as the "eldest gods" actually referring to the Primordials, and how the line "end his days" referred specifically to a male half-blood, and that just because the half-blood reaches sixteen, that doesn't mean that their sixteenth birthday will be _the_ day, merely the deciding factor in who the titular half-blood is.

Right now, however, it was clear to Zeus that the Child of Prophecy was none other than Shin'en, the most powerful demigod to ever live, more powerful than Heracles, his namesake, Odysseus, Jason, Dionysus, and all others.

And so, that threat to pull of Olympus from the sky was a very real one, and considering the things Shin'en had already accomplished, Zeus wasn't sure if he and the others could stop the child.

"Now, as I was saying: terms of surrender."

Zeus swallowed. "Go on."

Shin'en took the cigarette from his mouth and put it out on his neck. Then he rose with supernatural grace, putting his arm through his sleeve, rebuttoning his cloak. The atmosphere in the room shifted, and Zeus could tell that playtime was over.

Now it was business.

"Firstly," Shin'en started, "all of you are in very big trouble."

Zeus resisted the urge to blast the demigod before him for talking down to the gods in such a way.

"In the past few centuries, you've become lazy and complacent, content with letting the humans run amok about the planet with no regard for their penchant to fuck each other over for personal gain. Beyond the socio-political sphere, you've also done an excellent collective job in winning the awards for bad parents. I say bad and not worst because I am kind enough to not fault you entirely for your failures, it's not like any of you beat or raped your children…"

Shin'en looked behind him, his eyes rolling over the demigods gathered.

"…with your own hands anyway. There's also the egregious issue regarding the treatment and courtesy shown to those considered to be 'minor' gods, namely the supreme lack of respect and care to the burdens they've had to undertake in the face of the Olympians' collective laziness." Shin'en's eyes glowed an eerie red.

"You will all now be held responsible and accountable for your actions."

Zeus' temper finally flared out of his control. "You _dare_ speak down to the gods of Olympus!?"

An emerald warrior over four times as big as the fifteen foot tall sky king sprang to life around Shin'en, and Zeus' anger fizzled out instantly when that massive, ethereal hand closed around his head and yanked him from his seat of power. The youngest son of Kronos was forced to stare into that empty void in the helmet's visor, forced to listen to the distant howls within, howls like the damned on an eerie Fall night with the wind moving through the trees.

Then, whatever this _thing_ was threw Zeus back into his throne and continued to stare at him for so many seconds, before deconstructing from armor, to muscle, to bones, and then phasing out entirely. With all the eyes on him, Zeus cleared his throat and readjusted the tie of the suit he was wearing.

"What we have here," Shin'en said, "is… _failure_ …to communicate…"

Zeus fidgeted.

"I am not your friend…I am not your servant…I am not even your ally…I, by the power invested in me through mountains of bullshit, am your judge, your jury, and your executioner. What I say goes, regardless if that's ordering you to clean my sister's ass with your tongue after she poops-"

"Eww, never."

Shin'en ignored Persephone's comment. "Or giving you all a list of instructions to be carried out for the sake of your continued survival. Is that clear, Zeus?"

"…clear."

Athena then said her first words in forever. "What…instructions…?"

Shin'en's flicked over to her and then back to her father.

"All of you will be apologizing to each and every one of your sired, mothered, and otherwise created children for your absences and lack of attention. You will also be taking a _very_ active roll in world affairs—Poseidon, you've let the oceans become cluttered with trash and other pollutants. Athena, you've let wisdom fly the coup. Dionysus, alcoholism is running rampant. And Zeus," Shin'en's eyes became half-lidded with disappointment, "god of law and justice…you have the most to answer for. I could keep doing the way with the rest of you, but it's my sister's birthday and I want to celebrate. So-"

Shin'en clapped his hands.

"-you'll all be making it up to your children for your failures, you'll be active in the world to get it back on a good path, the term 'minor god' no longer applies for there is no such thing as a minor god in the first place, as all the gods are effectively born from the Primordials, Titans, or the Olympians themselves. All of you will also be reconciling with such gods who've you so angered. Further, all of the children that you have in the world not present in this throne room—you will be giving the head councilors of Camp Half-Blood a detailed list of these children so that they will be brought to camp and trained to defend themselves. Those that joined forces with the enemy against Olympus will be granted amnesty, and cabins will be built at Camp Half-Blood in honor of as many gods as the grounds will allow. Any questions?"

"What of the Ancient Laws?" Hermes asked. "You told us to be more active in the world to get it being a better place, but the Laws prevent us from directly interfering with mortal affairs."

"And you wanted us to apologize to our children for our failures," Demeter said, "but the Ancient Laws also prevent us from interacting with them in the first place."

"Ah, the Ancient Laws," Shin'en said amusedly. "Never before has there been a bigger excuse to shirk responsibility in favor of revelry. Tell me: has anyone here ever actually _studied_ the Ancient Laws?"

Immediately, everyone looked to Athena, who fidgeted. "Well…not…not exactly…"

"Oh, so how do all the gods somehow know that they can't talk to their kids if none of them have ever actually looked over the Laws? An even better question: if no one's studied the Laws, even say what they are claimed to say? An even better question than that: do the Ancient Laws even exist?"

A deep hush fell over the throne room as the implications of Shin'en's questions went reverberating through everyone's brains.

On a side note, there isn't an actual wiki page for anything called the Ancient Laws, but instead five bullet points in the Greek Gods page under the section "Divine Law," so, effectively, there is no such thing as the Ancient Laws.

Zeus swallowed, his godly heart pounding a little bit faster at what he was hearing. He himself could not accurately recall who had taught him the Ancient Laws, or exactly what all the Laws were, but if what Shin'en was saying was true, and there weren't actually any laws restricting the gods from spending time with their children, then…

"I suppose you will be wanting an oath on the Styx to ensure our compliance?" the sky king asked with a slight bit of sarcasm.

"Nope," Shin'en said, and Zeus was floored. "Originally, I was going to have you all swear upon the name of Chaos to uphold the terms of surrender I just laid out, but then I had a better idea: what better way of controlling a parent is there, than controlling their children? No, there will be no oaths made, on the Styx or on Chaos. Instead, you will all be bound by the expectations placed upon you by your children, and you will be left asking yourself: what kind of parent am I really? Will I shirk the responsibility I have to my kids and be a complete, lazy dick, or will I rise to the occasion and become a better person for not just my children, but the whole of the world?"

Shin'en's smirk was almost cruel. "Just food for thought. Now, it's my sister's birthday, and I would like to celebrate in private with my family, which means I expect a grand party this evening at Camp Half-Blood. Tata."

And with that, the Dragon Ghost of the Abyss vapored himself, his sister, Paul, Sally, and Annabeth all the way from Olympus to the apartment, as the whole of the Eastern Seaboard had been repaired by the divine power of Erebus upon request of Shin'en, leaving the Olympians and their offspring along in throne room together.

It didn't take long for the gods to start flashing themselves and their kids to their respective palaces on the mountain and begin the most emotional day in Olympian history.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sally blinked a few times, not used to being deconstructed into gas, transported across several miles, and then reconstructed into a solid form. She realized she was in her penthouse suite near the top of the high rise she lived in with the generous amount of insurance money she gleaned from Gabe's corpse, and maintained with the money she made from little short stories she put up on Amazon.

Not only that, but her daughter was there, her probable future daughter-in-law was also there, Paul was knocked out on the couch, and, the far most important person in the room: her son, Percy.

He was awake, he was alive, and he was looking right at her.

And Sally was afraid, for she was no idiot. She knew that her son had never met her in person, and she knew that his first real impressions of her had been the monster she had become in those two other places, and she knew damn well how powerful first impressions were. So, tying all of that together, Sally feared that her son thought of her what she did of her counterparts, and he would never get past that, forever putting them at odds.

Sally could also tell that Persephone and Annabeth were thinking along the same lines she was, because they were both staring uncertainly between them.

And then her baby boy opened her arms and said impatiently, "Are you going to hug me or not?"

Sally threw herself into her son's arms, being just slightly shorter than his and his sister's 5'10, and for the literal first time in sixteen years she was able to hold him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Pizza!" Persephone exclaimed.

Shin'en frowned at his sister. "Steakhouse."

"Pizza's easier, and it's better for you than steak."

Persephone was not a vegetarian; she was just dumb.

"Wrong, very, very wrong. I want steak."

" _I_ want pizza, and since I'm older than you, _I_ get to pick what we eat for our birthday, and I want pizza, so, we're getting a pizza."

"You had what you wanted for your birthday _last_ year," Shin'en said, intentionally putting a petulant whine to his voice for the sake of his amusement, "it's _my_ year to pick."

Before Persephone could retaliate against that card, her brother pulled another card out of the deck. "Mom~! Sephy's being mean and won't let me pick lunch even though it's my birthday too and she got to pick last year~!"

"Persephone," Sally said gently, trying not to laugh, "your brother is right, you got to pick lunch last year. It's his year this time."

The girl's jaw nearly fell from her face, and she quickly turned a glower at her brother for his use of the Mom card, only for it to be countered by a victorious, smug smirk.

"You little brat," Persephone hissed lowly. "Haven't even been here for ten minutes and you already stole Mom."

Shin'en's smirk got bigger, and then he started whining again. "Mom~! Sephy's being mean to me~!"

"Children," Sally chided, her heart swelling at this, "be nice with each other."

It was just minutes ago, after she had dried her eyes, that she launched immediately into the question of what her little ones wanted for lunch, which prompted the above argument. Sally didn't care about asking how her boy had been or what he had been doing, because she had just seen all that, and she knew that he had not been well and what he'd been doing was universally considered to be very bad. So, she wanted this day with Percy to be as happy and phenomenal as she could make it.

The icing on the cake was that, even though she knew it was just an act on his part, an act his sister was falling for, the bickering between them was a little show for her sake to create the illusion that they had never actually been apart, and Sally didn't care if it made her a bad person or not, because she was thoroughly enjoying getting to play the mediating mother between her arguing children.

"But Mom~!"

"But nothing, young lady, unless you want sixteen birthday spankings on your butt."

"I'll take sixteen spanking if he gets sixteen spankings too," Persephone stated matter-of-factly.

"Nope, he'll get sixteen really big birthday kisses."

"What!? Why does he get kisses and I get spankings?"

"Because you _need_ spankings," Percy said with pointed eyes and a smirk.

"No, _you_ need spankings."

"No, _Annabeth_ needs spankings."

The twins turned to look at the blonde, who paled…then she flinched when Sally cracked the flyswatter against her palm, the woman giving a crooked grin. Annabeth clenched her butt really tight and put her hands on her cheeks in the face of the threats she was receiving.

Paul stepped in, smiling at the infectious happiness in the air. "There will be no spankings today. Come on, to the garage. I know a place that sells pizza _and_ steak."

"Yay!" Persephone cheered.

She grabbed her brother's hand and yanked him out the door, Paul following.

That left Annabeth and Sally alone by themselves, and the mother of two could tell something was wrong with the blonde, and she knew what it was.

"I can love him and be this way with him because he's my son."

Annabeth poured it all out, knowing there was no way around this. Besides, she wanted to get it off her chest. "I _get_ that, but you _saw_ all the things I saw, and that's not even _all_ of it, either, just the stuff his soul got scattered into. There's a lot we didn't see, and what we did see was horrible. You _can't_ just ignore that!"

Sally nodded, not offended in the slightest. "No, I can't ignore the things my son did. Killing babies, burning down homes, aiding and enabling corruption, torturing people. I can't ignore that…he's a hurting little boy that's carrying around a mountain of pain with him. I can't ignore that for all the things he did to others, those things were done to him in return. I can't ignore that when he found happiness with the twins, when he found happiness with you and Asteria, it was all ripped away from him."

"…that wasn't me…" Annabeth said very quietly.

Sally shrugged. "I also can't ignore that my own daughter killed a man once because _I_ told her to. I can't ignore all the fights she got in when she was little, and the fact that the state of New York gave a court order to put her in counseling that I had to pay for. I can't ignore that when people do bad things, they get punished for it."

Sally's eyes narrowed and temporarily lost their sparkle. "My son and my daughter have both done terrible things, Annabeth, and they've both paid for it in full. If you're going to continue dating my daughter, you're going to have to look past their sins, because I won't tolerate you having a bad attitude around my family because they've done things you don't like. Am I clear, young lady?"

And Annabeth stopped.

This wasn't a _funny_ moment, this wasn't comical, or lighthearted, or Sally just being a good mom. This was serious, this was a deciding moment in her life. If she _couldn't_ look past Shin'en's actions and see him as Sally's son and Persephone's little brother, if she couldn't look past all the bad things he did and keep seeing him as a monster, then she _needed_ to walk out that door and not ever worry about dating Persephone ever again, because, based on the principal's of cognitive dissonance, in which someone knowingly and willingly does something against what their conscious says is wrong, she would subject herself to endless self-inflicted pain as she fought against her values and her wants.

And so, Annabeth made a life-altering decision.

"Let's go. It's my girlfriend and her brother's birthday, and I haven't gotten him a present yet."

Sally beamed. Then she asked, "What'd you get my daughter?"

Annabeth flushed bright red.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en was rather impressed with his mother's behavior throughout the day. He expected her to be somewhat deranged, constantly babying him since she didn't get a chance to do so naturally, and constantly on her toes with trying to go over the top in pleasing him and keeping him happy.

Not so.

Sally behaved as if he had never left her life and had raised him alongside his sister.

She handled all the twins' banter and teasing with practiced ease and perfect gentleness. She never raised her voice or got frustrated with their antics, and knew exactly what to say in every situation to diffuse the false tension. She was even able to throw in when the twins started messing with Annabeth, making the blonde feel very small under the three-pronged assault.

Paul didn't say much, only offering a witty comment every now and then. He was the fifth wheel and he knew it, but he was not about to intrude on the long-lasting moment between his wife, stepdaughter, her girlfriend, and his stepson…technically speaking.

Paul knew better than to consider someone like Percy, or Shin'en, to be a child. There was too much wisdom and experience in the young man's eyes for him to be talked down to by anyone, especially adults. So, to consider himself over this person was a folly that Paul would take part in.

Anyway, the day progressed with nothing but merriment, and evening rolled around, bringing forth a grand celebration at Camp Half-Blood hosted by Zeus and attended by the Olympians, Hades, Hestia, a slew of minor gods, an army of nature spirits, Amphitrite, Triton, the one hundred-ish campers and their two hundred-ish siblings, now campers themselves.

Percy and Persephone were showered in more gifts than any one person should ever have, and spent more time shaking hands and meeting people than it takes for a session of Congress to vote on a bill.

There was also the doling out of awards and honors via Zeus. After all, the Battle of Manhattan began when Persephone and Charles Beckendorf destroyed the _Princess Andromeda_ , and then the daughter of Poseidon held the city for three days until her brother and Kronos arrived and did battle, taking it all the way up to Olympus before the Titan was finally defeated and the war over.

Tyson the Cyclops became general and was granted a massive club for his actions during the Battle of Atlantis.

Grover Underwood was given the title of Cloven Elder and was tasked with keeping the Wild safe…with the help of the gods, of course, as per the terms laid out by Percy.

The minor gods and their wayward children were granted general amnesty and were publicly apologized to by Zeus and the other gods for their disrespect, and had the title "minor" stripped and replaced with "respected."

With the devastation brought forth by the battle between Shin'en and Kronos, and the recognizing of so many gods, there needed to be rebuilding. Annabeth was appointed chief architect of the project.

Then Shin'en and Persephone were offered the opportunity to become gods, to which they both casually declined in favor of tasking all the gods with upholding the many responsibilities they had as gods, and most importantly, as parents.

Then came the milling time, in which Shin'en was sought out by some, and he sought out others.

Luke found him first and took him somewhere private.

"Not that I'm _ungrateful_ , but that was not how it was supposed to go," the son of Hermes said.

"I know," Shin'en said, "but that was me two years ago, and this is me now. Things changed."

Luke's mouth set into a thin line. He wasn't happy with this, not entirely, but he knew that shouting and threatening the person before him was a one-way ticket to pain. And Shin'en could tell, so he said:

"Don't think they're out of the fire yet, Luke. I've given them the opportunity to better themselves and the world. If they fail, I'll return and correct my mistake."

Luke's brow furrowed. "Return?"

Shin'en left the son of Hermes and found Athena. The wisdom goddess joined him in a private setting.

"What did you think of Hunter?"

Athena looked out over the bay, her hands formally clasped behind her back. Shin'en had his right arm resting in the middle of his cloak.

"I think he had potential to become a wise man. He was too headstrong and opinionated. He believed himself a hundred percent right even in the face of mere speculation."

"Do you not think that he exists in this world as well?"

"The possibility had crossed my mind, yes. I think I'll go and find him, and see if I can't nudge him in the right direction. I'll also do what I can to make sure he and his friends don't die in a car crash."

"Thank you."

"You did not want to speak with me just to talk about Hunter."

Shin'en turned to look at Athena, and she looked back at him, grey against ruby red. "If you do anything to hurt either Persephone or Annabeth, I'll give you an end worse than what Ares and Aphrodite experienced."

Athena just nodded.

Shin'en departed from her, and she went back to her children.

Not a full five seconds later, Shin'en was speaking privately with Hera.

"I know you know what comes next, nephew."

"I do, and I've put measures in place that I expect will make things easier."

"Such as?"

"Mist. With my eyes, I can…program…people, how I choose, should they be weak enough compared to me. I've been with the Romans, and you know I've been here."

"Do you know of my idea?"

"The exchange of camp leaders to instill trust and loyalty in each other in the hopes of a grand alliance between the camps against Mother Earth? You could say I know a thing or two."

"Your thoughts?"

"Wipe Jason's and Persephone's memory, but do not leave Annabeth and Reyna in the dark. It will be easier if they are in the know. It'll also create less drama, stress, and tension."

Hera blinked, surprised. "You will not be participating?"

Shin'en fixed the queen with a cold stare. "If anything happens to my sister, I hold you responsible."

He left, leaving Hera very confused.

Annabeth found him next, and they both stood at a column in private.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I've been calling you a monster for a long time, and it wasn't fair."

"Bullshit," Shin'en said flatly. "I've killed babies and tortured children, and used a rat to perform an abortion-"

Annabeth was horrified.

"-well, it was Gatou, but more or less the same difference. The point is, yes, I am a monster, and not just because I kill people."

"Okay, kinda ruined the moment I had going there."

"Sorry."

Annabeth experienced an awkward silence as Shin'en continued to stare at her, expectant for more conversation. She took a breath and focused back in.

"Shin'en, I-"

"You have my permission to call me by my birth name."

Annabeth swallowed, very aware of how important that was to him. "Percy…I'll…," here, she grinned a little, because she couldn't think of anything meaningful to say and so came up with something on the spot, "…I'll do my best to stay away from wearing any pull-ups."

The light of the bonfire caught in Percy's eye just right, making Annabeth think she saw a little bit of water gather there, but the light quickly flickered about and didn't catch the same way again so she wasn't sure.

Not knowing what else to do, Annabeth stepped forward and lightly rapped her lips against Percy's cheek, slipping her hand into his in his cloak sleeve to give it a quick squeeze.

"Thank you, Percy, for all that you did."

Her chest now clear, Annabeth walked away to go join the celebration, but was stopped three steps later by the calling of her name. She turned her head around. "Hm?"

Shin'en stared at her. "Do not ever hurt my sister. You will not die through the next experience."

Annabeth swallowed, nodded, and walked away.

And then Shin'en was with the last person on his list of those he cared to speak to. He and his sister stood at the end of the dock heading to the sound. He was leaning on the rail, while his sister was standing straight, happy and bubbling with energy, a goblet of Welch's sparkling water in her hand.

"It's going to be a great year," she said excitedly. "We're gonna go to high school with Annabeth, and you can be on the football team and me and Annabeth will be cheerleaders and the two of us will play volleyball and you can be the line judge and we're gonna got to so many parties and make a bunch of friends and-"

Shin'en continued to stare silently over the dark waters in the distance, and his unchanged mood was what made his sister stop in her fantasy. Her smile faded, replaced with worry.

"Percy, you are…you are going to _stay_ , right…?"

He reached into his cloak and produced a large pocket watch with an engraving like a raven around its edge. He handed it to Persephone, and she stared at it uncertainly. Then, the watch's face blinked open to reveal the large purple eye. Instead of freaking out and dropping the Uzumaki weapon, she instead looked at her brother.

"The battle didn't go like Zeus said. You came in immediately and blew up the bridges, and you fought all the monsters and Titans by yourself, and you fought…Other Me…and this is her Power Rangers Thingy."

"The Uzumaki Karas Armor," Shin'en said. "It'll give you the power you'll need to get out of any situation."

Persephone looked down at it, the eye looking back at her, and she looked at her brother. "Why are you giving me this?"

"You're going to need it for when I'm not around."

"When you're not around—Percy!" The hurt in her voice caused Shin'en's heart to ache. "You promised you'd spend a year here with me after we were done with the Titans!"

"I did," he agreed, remembering the last time he left his sister back during the Winter Solstice, "and I will. Just not yet."

Persephone stamped her foot, and the water around the dock started to bubble as her anger brought it to a boil. "Then when, huh? When I'm old and got gray hair and stuck in a bed? What's so important that you're going to ditch me and Mom and Annabeth and Dad?"

"Naruko's answer."

"Naruko's answer?" Persephone said loudly, confused. "What does she have to do with anything? What answer? What did you ask her that's so important you're leaving me?"

She was on the verge of tears, and Shin'en was too.

He couldn't explain it to his sister in ways that she would understand, so he didn't bother. He turned around and wrapped his sister in the tightest hug he could give her without crushing her skeleton, and she dropped her goblet and the Karas Armor to hug him back with just as much strength.

"I love you," Percy whispered. "I love you so much it hurts."

"Then _why_ …?"

"Because I made a promise a long time ago to people I loved just a little less than I love you, and I _don't_ want to go through my idea on how to deliver on that promise, which is why I need Naruko's answer. Once I have that, I'm _done_ with that world. I'll spend the rest of my life here, with you and Mom and Annabeth and Dad."

Persephone's tears fell down her face and went trailing down Shin'en's cloak. She inhaled sharply through her nose, sucking up the snot that threatened to fall. "P-Promise?"

"I promise."

"Pinky promise?" The twins shook pinkies. "Cross your heart and hope to die?"

Percy crossed her heart.

"Okay," Persephone smiled through her tears. "I love you, Percy."

"I love you too."

Just like last time, she must've fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew she was on the dock by herself, the Karas Armor in her hand, and Percy was gone.

Persephone stood up from her laying position, and clasped her hands in a prayer to the one god who died for her two thousand years ago.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **And that ends the last chapter of this story. The next chapter will the epilogue, and it will also be the prologue to the final installment of the**_ **Backup Plan** _ **trilogy.**_

 _ **I hope more people Fav and Follow that one than they did this one.**_

 _ **Anyway, as always, Fav, Follow, and Review!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en unceremoniously walked in on a private meeting between Pain, Konan, and Madara. All three looked at him very angrily at his uncaring intrusion, and Pain was honestly contemplating using his Almighty Push to put the boy back in his place, but then he saw Shin'en's eyes, as did the other two in the dimly lit room.

Before, they took the design of three red triangles overlapping to form a nine-pointed star. Now, the design was that of _six_ triangles overlapping to make an eighteen-pointed star. The design was very compact to fit over the size of his pupil and iris.

Quoth the Abyss, "We need to talk."


	54. Epilogue and Prologue

_Epilogue and Prologue_

 _ **This is the official final chapter of**_ **Blood War** _ **. Like the title says, it is the epilogue of this story, and the prologue of the next.**_

 _ **It wraps things up here and sets up what kind of universe we'll be working in next story.**_

 _ **That being said, the next story won't be out for a long, long time, perhaps another year, perhaps longer, because after this I'm taking a break from fanfiction to steamroll through my novel. I could've had it finished and published and be well into another book, but I'm too devoted to faceless people on the internet that tell me things.**_

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

'" _Shin'en of the Cloud," Madara rumbled. "We would like to talk to you about an invitation…"'_

Excerpt from Chapter 37 of _Backup Plan_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _October 5, 1013 A.S._

Shin'en, at this handicapped point in his life, missing an arm and his chakra network about as screwy as Rock Lee's, narrowed at his eyes at the three that had just dropped in on him after his victory over the Zero-Tails. He had seen these people in his dreams, the orange masked one, the blue-haired woman, and the man with Rinnegan. He knew those cloaks too, but he didn't know what their names were or what they wanted.

Besides his allegiance.

"An invitation to what?" the demigod asked.

"To the Akatsuki," said masked man.

"And what will the Akatsuki be doing with my help?"

"Gathering funds by performing various tasks throughout the world, with the ultimate goal being to capture the nine Tailed-Beasts to create a superweapon capable of dissolving the current shinobi world order and replace it with our view of the world, one where people are too scared to ever think of war again."

"Ideal," Shin'en said flatly, though he would be lying he said the idea didn't appeal just a little, "but I think you might have some trouble with that. Tailed-Beasts are difficult opponents."

"You fought four of them by yourself," the woman noted.

"And you're in no condition to do that ever again," the Rinnegan-bearer said. "You are missing an arm, and your chakra network is ruined."

"If you know I'm damaged goods, why bother with me?"

"Because you are still incredibly powerful," the masked man said, and there wasn't a shred of flattery in his voice. He was speaking truth, and he knew it. "You have the Mangekyou Sharingan, mastery in stealth and infiltration, great skill in combat and tactics, your mind is still very sharp, and you have _other_ powers."

"By joining the Akatsuki, you will also be provided the protection you need while in this weakened state," the Rinnegan-bearer said. "We gain your sword, you gain our shield. It is a mutualistic relationship."

"That may be," Shin'en said, "but remains to be seen is if you can back your bark up."

A kunai was flung at the woman, who tilted her head to the side. When it reached her ear, the Transformation Jutsu cancelled and the kunai turned back into an explosive tag. It detonated, blowing a crater in the road due to its yield, and all three Akatsuki members were engulfed in the blast cloud.

The one that called himself Madara merely flared his chakra, and that simple act carried with it enough power to dispel the smoke. Then, on sheer reflex, he activated his favored jutsu. Shin'en went sailing through him, a simple katana in hand. He hit the ground, looking over his left shoulder, and Madara looked right into the boy's left eye.

He heard these words before everything went strange: "Ama-no-Iwato."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Obito found himself standing in a hellish marsh. The grass and water was black, a red glow about them, and there were mountains in the distance. They were silhouetted red with black snow at their peaks. The sky above was black, with red clouds floating about.

Obito looked for the source of the red light, and he quickly found it: on the opposite horizon was blazing red sun that was quickly slipping down. The Uchiha felt panic overwhelm, some instinct telling him that if he didn't get to that sun before it vanished, he was doomed.

Using Kamui didn't even compute in the man's mind, he just channeled chakra to his legs and called upon the strength of Tobi, the Madara-created entity he was wearing, and went shooting across the marsh at over four hundred miles an hour.

A massive rooster-tail of water erupted in his wake, and blades of grass were shredded away.

Faster and faster he went, his heart beating harder and harder, and closer and closer he became, but down and down did the sun go.

Obito began to feel despair come over him, and it caused him to ease up slightly as thoughts of simply giving in began seeping into his mind.

 _Come on, Obito…_ a distant voice suddenly said. _You won't ever get to be with me and Kakashi and Minato-sensei if you're stuck in here._

And then a sun practically erupted in the Uchiha's heart, and he picked up his pace a hundredfold. Just before that red sun dipped below the horizon, Obito went sailing through its crimson light.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

If Pain had to guess, Shin'en just put Madara under a genjutsu. He shared a look with Konan, and they both agreed to let this happen. Neither of them particularly liked Madara in the first place. But they weren't dumb enough to try and fight the man, even with their combined forces.

But, if Shin'en could him down with a genjutsu, then great.

However, the two shinobi suddenly gasped, Shin'en clutching his bleeding eye, Madara stumbling. Pain instantly acted.

"Almighty Push."

He blasted the boy away, and Konan's paper surged forward, wrapping the child up nice and tight.

Madara regained hi balance and his breath, and then approached, Pain and Konan following. Konan made a gesture, and Shin'en was lifted off the ground and brought forward. He didn't struggle, but maintained a staring contest with Madara's eyehole.

"Impressive genjutsu. It almost worked on me."

"You have a strong will," Shin'en said. "I'll at least respect you for that."

Pain extended his hand, opening his palm to reveal the ring with the red stone at its center, emblazoned with the kanji for "lord."

"Do you accept our invitation?"

Shin'en's answer was simple. "Yes."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _August 19, 1016 A.S._

Shin'en nearly blasted the doors off their hinges when he intruded on the private meeting between Madara, Pain, and Konan, and all three started at the sight of him.

"We need to talk," he said, and his tone brokered zero room for argument.

"Talk about what?" Madara asked.

"The future of this organization and peace on Earth. Please sit, but let's make this quick because I find myself in something of a hurry."

With their eyes, Madara and Pain could see very clearly that Shin'en was no longer handicapped. His arm was back, and his chakra network was leagues better than before. His coils were bigger, his chakra brighter, and dare they say, flowing faster. He wasn't just as full power, he was beyond what his full power had previously been, and they weren't sure if they could him, even if working together.

Shin'en's eyes narrowed. "I know where your body is at, _Nagato_ , and I've got several strategies ready to be used against _you_ , so don't either of you think of defying me."

With the air now very tense, or tenser than before, the three Akatsuki members sank back into their chairs, while Shin'en remained standing, but he did walk closer.

"All right," Madara said, "let's talk."

"When I was six years old, I vowed to kill every shinobi on the planet. Some things happened and I lost sight of that goal, and then more things happened, and I vowed I was going to bring everlasting peace to this world. Some things happened after that, and now I'm left with the question: how am I going to do that? Right now, my answer is simple: I'm going to kill every human being, shinobi, civilian, and otherwise, on this wet rock, including the three of you, so unless any of you have got a better answer than the genocide of the human species, now is the time to put it out there."

The three Akatsuki were thrown for a loop so wide at that monologue that said loop went all the way around the sun and back. Shin'en produced a watch and started counting away the seconds until he literally killed everyone in the Hidden Rain and started moving down the map. Nearly a full minute passed of the Akatsuki members having to collect themselves before Pain delivered his speech.

Shin'en listened with rapt attention as the Rinnegan-bearer talked about pain, justice, vengeance, the Cycle of Hatred, and human beings understanding each other. It was basically the same speech he gave to Naruto in canon, only altered slightly to fit the mood of the meeting room instead of the battlefield.

"Valid points on all accounts, Pain, but I'm trying to do this with either as many people alive as possible, or no people alive. Your method involves literal war and mass destruction, all of which would keep your Cycle of Hatred going strong. I want to end it, and the way to end any cycle is to remove a component. In the scheme of the world, that component is the human animal, because even without shinobi around, the civilians will still fuck each other up. Any other suggestions?"

And then Madara faced his crossroads. He could keep silent, in which Shin'en would go about doing exactly what he said he would do, and then all those years of planning, pain, and sacrifice would be for nothing in the wake of his pointless death. But, speaking of Project Tsuki no Me in front of Pain and Konan was a surefire way of completely losing their trust, and potentially turning them against him.

Then again, it was clear to Madara that something had just recently happened to Shin'en, and now the boy was driven towards a goal of bloodless peace, and was willing to commit genocide if nothing else showed up. So, the Uchiha figured, if Pain and Konan attacked, Shin'en would step in and then he'd get the ultimate ally in achieving his dream of peace in the world.

And so, Madara revealed Project Tsuki no Me to the gathered members, ignoring the looks of Pain and Konan as he did so. He spoke of the Ten-Tails, the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Jinchuuriki, and the endless dream of happiness the genjutsu would provide to the whole world.

After he was done, the room was silent. Pain and Konan were understandably livid at being lied to, but they weren't about to do anything, not with Shin'en mulling this over. They knew that if they attacked, they were done for.

Already Nagato had summoned the other Paths to his chamber, all of them combing the room for some hint that someone other than him and them were inside.

"I don't like it," Shin'en said at last, and Madara felt his heart skip a few beats, "but it's a plan that works—assuming it's everything you say and nothing goes wrong. Only eight people, at least, need to die, then everyone in the world is placed in a genjutsu where their ideal reality is played out for them. No more conflict, no more struggle, no more disease or poverty, no more crime, hatred, inequality. Everyone essentially becomes a happy vegetable, and they're sustained by the tree jutsu you'll use as the Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki. It's a copout, but it's one the demands the least amount of blood."

Shin'en looked at Pain. "It also brings an end to your Cycle of Hatred."

The walking corpse's mouth set into a line thinner than usual, and so the demigod continued.

"Your plan of the superweapon involves a never-ending cycle of death and pain. Your scope is naïve, believing that enough agony will bring an end to war. For a generation or two, _yes_ , but like a snake shedding its skin, new generations will come forth, and they will think differently. The weapon you created decades back is no longer a deterrent, but something to gain, and all it takes is one enterprising individual to plunge the whole world back into chaos. Is that what you want? A world forever marred by death and suffering?"

And Nagato didn't need to think long or hard about it, because he knew exactly what Yahiko would have said.

"No."

"Then why hesitate with this plan?"

Pain sighed. "Principal, I suppose. Should it succeed as stated, Project Tsuki no Me will bring peace everlasting to the world, with everyone in the world permanently subject to their own fantasy, but it's…a lie. A false peace."

"A false peace," Shin'en used aloud, and then he thought of a way to convince the Pain and Konan. "Have you ever heard the story of Darth Plagueis the Peacemaker?"

"No," was three-layered response.

"I thought not. It's an old legend." Then Shin'en launched into one of the most elaborate, borderline humorous lies he had ever told.

"Darth Plagueis the Peacemaker was a Bright Lord of Peace so wise and so knowledgeable that people across the world would come to him for help in fixing their problems. Well, two clans were on the brink of war and they were going to drag their allies in with them to create a massive, bloody conflict, all over an old story. See, the first clan were descendants of Wei Jinn, and the other clan were descendants of Jinn Wei, and the story goes that Jinn Wei was called upon by the gods to transport a sacred orb form the West Gate to the East Gate, and along the journey he was attacked by Wei Jinn and the orb stolen, only for Wei Jinn to be caught and imprisoned for twenty years. However, the descendants of Wei Jinn tell the story that their ancestor came across the injured Jinn Wei and offered to help transport the orb, only he was _wrongly_ imprisoned for twenty years. The conflict carried on for decades before war was on the horizon, and so one child, one who would become Darth Plageuis' apprentice, Darth Sidious came to Darth Plagueis for a way to end the war.

"Darth Plagueis searched through his archives for three days before he found the scrolls that detailed the story of Wei Jinn and Jinn Wei, and as it turns out, the two men of myth were actually brothers, and they weren't adults, but small children. The sacred orb in question was actually just a ball, and the East and West Gates were actually just goals for the ball to go in. Wei Jinn committed a foul against his brother, and so he was placed in timeout for two minutes, not twenty years. Thus, Darth Plagueis the Peacemaker averted war, resolved a decades' old conflict between clans, unified them both, and prevented the deaths of thousands of people. The funny part?"

Shin'en grinned. "Darth Plagueis fabricated his whole explanation, therefore accomplishing peace…with a lie. Is the peace achieved and the lives saved not worth the crime of the deception?"

After that, Pain and Konan shared a look, and both came to a quick consensus. The Rinnegan-bearer looked at Shin'en.

"We'll help with Project Tsuki no Me."

Madara nodded. "Very well then. Since we're all in agreement on Project Tsuki no Me, I don't see any point in the Akatsuki continuing with its current operations. We begin capturing the Tailed-Beasts immediately."

" _No_."

All three looked at Shin'en, who seemed almost manic now. His lips were quirked upward and his eyes held a wild tint to them.

"Haven't any of you been keeping up with the world? Haven't you felt the hatred here? Don't you know what's been happening in the Villages since my disappearance?"

"There have been reports of increased military activity," Pain said, "but I don't see what your concern is."

"My _concern_ is the reason for all this activity. Three years ago almost to the day, I attacked the Hidden Leaf and fought against the One, Two, Eight, and Nine-Tailed Beasts, the Fourth Hokage, Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin, the Fourth Raikage, Kakashi Hatake, Might Guy, Darui of Black Lightning, the Third Hokage, and no less than twenty thousand assorted shinobi…all by myself. Never mind the battle between be Naruko and Sasuke that literally reshaped the landscape.

"I killed a _lot_ of people, and made a _lot_ of people mad at me. Holding true to you Cycle of Hatred, Pain, they've all thrown themselves into training regimens, sacrificed their humanity, become cruel and powerful killers, all in the name of taking my head, the head that was powerful enough to fight single-handedly against the world's finest of the day. When you've got that big of a measuring stick to reach, you can't afford to be lacking in any category, and so the world has been working its way up to match my level. Do any of you think that S-Rank cuts it anymore?"

Shin'en's eyes glowed in the dim light. "I have changed the world. I have made it stronger, meaner, and darker. The denizens here have become powerful in my name, and they want vengeance. They think they have a chance now, with so many powerful numbers. The mission of the Akatsuki is in jeopardy due to lack of individual strength in the members."

"What are you suggesting, Shin'en?" Pain asked.

"We need to train, and the Hidden Rain isn't big enough for ten S-Rank shinobi to do that. We're going West, to the furthest reaches of the map."

Later, Pain summoned the whole of Akatsuki to his village, told them that the world had become too strong for them operate as is, and that they were leaving for a year to the western edges to become stronger themselves. At the end of that year was when they would return, and begin their mission in earnest.

The only one that argued was Hidan, but he was easily cowed by the idea that if he didn't become stronger, he couldn't make the appropriate sacrifices to Jashin.

And so, with a steward in his place, Pain led his organization to the Western Edge to further the quest for peace.

 _Thus, ends the story of_ _Backup Plan: Blood War_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Prologue for_ _Backup Plan: Armageddon_

When Itachi has been just a little boy, as in still in potty training little boy, it was a monthly occurrence that his mother would drop him off at Kushina's house while she and his father went out on a date or had adult business to attend to. He didn't mind at all, since Aunty Kushina was always fun to be with, coming up with little games and the like to always keep him entertained.

When Sasuke was born, that hadn't changed, although her tummy got bigger just like Mikoto's had, and so she became just a little different, but still mostly the same. And so he and Sasuke were raised in part by Aunty Kushina together…and along with Naruko as well, after she was born.

There were also the many humorous stories of Baby Sasuke and Naruko always trying to outdo each other, something that carried on well into their early teens.

Itachi distinctly recalled the time in which the infants hosted a contest between themselves to see who could make their diaper dirtier, and how he had to help clean up the resulting mess. He also distinctly recalled being there to help potty train the two children.

Those were good, innocent times.

Now, however…

The ANBU captain stared dispassionately at the host of women and children he had just rescued from the illegal brothel, even as all of them were practically clambering over each other to give him their most sincere thanks.

Under his mask, Itachi's eyes burned red with hatred, and he uttered a single word under his breath, "Amaterasu."

The women and children were engulfed in a black whirlwind, their screams fading as their ashes were quickly burned away into the ether.

He hadn't been here to save them in the first place. His mission, as given to him by the Fourth Hokage, was to test out the power of his new eyes, which was a great cause to Itachi's anger.

Abuse of his and Sasuke's Mangekyou during their training and their missions had led to the both of them becoming blind—nearly anyway—and to resolve that issue they had turned to the tablet in the shrine, where they learned that swapping their eyes would lead to new light. Sasuke had attacked then and there, practically frothing at the mouth to steal Itachi's eyes, but the elder brother had been able to counter and subdue his junior.

From there, it was Tsunade-handled surgery and boom, both of the last Uchiha had new eyes, ones dubbed the Eternal Mangekyou.

According to the tablet, the design of the Eternal Mangekyou would be the mixing of yours and the pattern of the taken eye, and that held true for the brothers in that Itachi's black pinwheel had blended nicely with Sasuke's red star…in that Itachi's had straightened itself out to fit nicely with that star, making his eye the submissive in the pattern.

It infuriated Itachi to no end that _his_ eye would submit to Sasuke's. Him, the ANBU captain, the smarter of the two, the wiser, stronger, older, that he would be dubbed inferior by nature to that little headstrong whelp who made rebuilding the clan one of his priorities, evidenced by the several women that were pregnant with his children, and the several mothers that had little Uchihas running around.

Itachi was so disgusted that his own blood would go around whoring under the idiotic and cliché "Clan Restoration Act," and knock up every bitch that opened her legs.

They were weak harlots that were tainting the strong and noble Uchiha bloodline, and everyday Itachi fought the urge to do what Shin'en had done so many years ago and _kill_ everyone.

The only thing that stopped Itachi from doing that was because it was what Shin'en had done, and Itachi refused to be anything like that _menace_.

But that didn't stop him from immolating no less than thirty underage sex slaves just to test his new eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The clan heirs of the Leaf were all born around the same time. That was not an accident, but by careful design on part by all the parents. It was a practice decades old, and meant for all the children to be born more or less together, raised together, made friends together, and so when they came of age to take over the clans, the clans would have strong ties due to all the leaders being friends.

It worked with all previous generations, with Tsume, Shikaku, Shibi, Inoichi, Choza, Fugaku, and Hiyashi, being prime examples.

As such, part of the idea was for the little heirs to have regular playdates and sleepovers and attend everyone's birthday party, with subtle nudging as to who to be better friends with, such as Shikamaru being with Choji and Ino, and getting Hinata to be with Shino and Kiba, and Sasuke to be with Naruko—which happened on its own since those two were just drawn to each other—and of course, get the boys to be with the boys, and the girls with the girls.

With so much experience in the arts of manipulation and political maneuvering, the parents did a spectacular job.

There were many, many stories of accidents, gift-giving, fights, hide and seek, crying, and all the things that went with children being with children.

Ino had been the loud and outspoken fashionista, openly critiquing everything she saw regardless of who was wearing it.

Choji had been the reserved one content to eat in peace, and Shikamaru had shared that sentiment, only instead of eating chips he was fine with watching clouds.

Hinata had initially been the shy one, but Kushina broke the girl out of that easily enough, and Hinata came into her own version of Ino. The two often contested each other.

Kiba had also been loud and brash, perfectly fine with jumping into a puddle of mud and throwing it at his peers. The only one that didn't mind that was the tomboy Naruko, who happily threw mud back at him, and Sasuke would join in, trying to throw more mud and outdo Naruko, and then everyone else would get pulled in some way or another.

Shino was always the smartest in the room, always the one standing away from everyone, watching and observing all from a distance…until he got dinged in the face with mud and couldn't fight down the primal urge to retaliate.

On top of all the little fights they got into, the eight little ones also hosted the Great Potty Challenge, trademarked by Kushina, a competition to see who could become potty trained the fastest.

Naruko won, with Sasuke in second—a fact she lorded over him for years to come—and Kiba third, who was endlessly frustrated with himself for not winning. The others fell in line one by one, with Ino being the last, not making the list until she was nine due to a bedwetting problem.

They were all great, tight friends at one point, and then Shin'en happened.

Now Naruko was out with Jiraiya, Sasuke was fucking everything with a pussy, and the rest, well…

Hinata, once the shy little girl, had a twisted look of fury on her face. "You little bitch! Get up, _get up!_ I'm not through with you yet!"

Hanabi struggled to her feet, her body covered in red welts, blood leaking down her chin, tears falling from her eyes. She barely made a stance before her sister was on her, ruthlessly striking her with the Gentle Fist and cracking bone while she was at it.

Minutes later, after the anger from whatever minute inconvenience burned itself out of her system, Hinata left her punching bag of a little sister on the cold floor, uncaring of all the fluids that Hanabi was laying in.

Shino had found his calling with Torture and Interrogation, fitting right in with the likes of Anko and Ibiki. When his hive had been destroyed during the Chunin Exams at the hands of Omoi of the Cloud, he had been forced to cultivate a new hive, and he had succeeded tremendously, creating a whole new species of his clan's Parasitic Insects.

Inside one chamber, Shino stared silently at his guest, who glowered defiantly back.

"You can kiss my ass if you think I'm going to talk to you, Leaf ninja."

"Oh, you will talk," Shino assured, "just not yet. I want you to scream first."

He stretched his hand out, and a few Insects came crawling out from under his sleeve. They were no bigger than regular Insects, but they proved their differences when they suddenly grew ten times as large, now comparable to human hands in size.

The guest broke out into a sweat at the sight of the large beetles.

"Ah, maybe I spoke too soon. Um, what do you want to know?"

Shino didn't say anything. His beetles scurried forward, making the guest start to struggle against his binds, but it was no use. The beetles made this horrifying squeaking sound before their shells sprang open and their wings activated. They attacked the guest, who shrieked when they started burrowing through his skin.

Once inside, their bulges could be seen as they scurried around, heading for the guest's head. He screamed when they chewed through the tissue and vanished under his skull, into his brain.

Shino watched the whole thing unfold with a grin on his face.

Hours later, the guest would stir awake and find himself suspended off the ground by restraints, his whole body covered in grotesque growths. He made sounds of distress and panic, and then those growths started to rip open as the Parasitic Insect eggs within hatched and made their way to their master, bringing with them the information they taken from the guest's mangled corpse.

Kiba had gone feral. His fingernails, traditionally extended and sharp in the Inuzuka clan, were extreme even by his clan's standards, reaching over four inches in length, jagged and serrated on all sides. His hair hadn't been cut in year, becoming a shaggy brown mane marred with dirt, twigs, and refuse. His teeth were screwed up, with his incisors and front teeth having been filed by his own hand into points.

Akamaru was much better off than his master, considering he had been _eaten_ by Kiba— _raw_ on top of that.

Tsume kept her son locked away, drinking herself to sleep every night out of the guilt she felt for making her son this way by pushing way too hard.

Choji had become a mountain of muscle, devoting everything he had to becoming a creation of solid mass and not fat. One might have thought this a detriment to his clan's techniques, ones that ran directly off of fat and calories, but Choji had discovered how to rework those jutsu to run off muscle. Psychologically speaking, Choji hadn't changed _that_ much, as he was still friends with Shikamaru and Ino, but he was now the head of his clan, and conducted himself as such.

The same was more or less true for the latter shinobi mentioned. They had become the heads of their clans in the wake of Shin'en's slaughter, and so they had matured a great deal to fit their roles. All three did maintain a sadistic streak, however, and they did thoroughly enjoy killing people in very gruesome ways because every time they did kill someone, they had warped their minds to not see that someone, but to see Shin'en.

And _oh_ the things they wanted to do the demigod.

Sakura had become the assistant head of the Hidden Leaf Hospital, working directly with Tsunade and Shizune. While she was just as driven by revenge as the rest of her peers, she had adopted a far too logical mind frame from her time as a doctor, particularly in the fields of decision making.

Did you keep the young child who would never recover alive, and spend "X" amount of money forever to keep her systems running, or did you pull her plug and divert those resources to five other patients that can be back on their feet in a month? In Sakura's mind, it was easy: pull the plug.

Similar decisions were made over the years, and there were numerous complaints—not that complaints were accurate enough description for the emotions of parents whose children you just took from them—and Sakura, and all doctors of the hospital, as authorized by the Fourth Hokage, subdued and imprisoned all complainers for use in experimental medicines and procedures.

Oh, yes, the Hidden Leaf had become a near-barbaric place since Shin'en's attack.

Minato had imposed martial law, and it had been in effect for three years now. Civilian children were mandated to be enrolled in the Shinobi Academy by six, civilian children older than six and in civilian schools were pulled from there and put into the Academy, the already active-duty shinobi were placed under strict training regimen—which was unheard of even in the time of the hard Second Hokage, as it was generally understood that one's training was up to them—and failure to adhere to that regimen would result in harsh punishment. Wages from missions were cut, as Minato ordered more to be taken out of the paychecks to go to the overall village fund.

He hardly ever left his tower, the Fourth Hokage. Kushina felt strongly neglected, especially because her adopted son, Menma, had been spending _a lot_ of time with Konohamaru, and with Naruko abroad with Jiraiya and Mikoto dead and all the little heirs she used to babysit all grown up, Kushina was left alone in her house nearly all the time.

With her chakra network so damaged from the Nine-Tail's release nearly sixteen years ago, she couldn't even manage the simple tree-walking exercise. Hell, she couldn't even go hopping through the trees, her body so physically weak that she couldn't put out the strength necessary to leap from branch to branch.

So, with no more shinobi skills of her own, and with no kids to look after, Kushina was a lonely woman. She remained faithful, dutifully so, but she wished she had her man back in her life. Whenever Minato was home, it was because he worked himself too hard and didn't want to stay in Tower's quarters. Of course, being that tired, he didn't give Kushina the time of day and instead went straight to the bedroom and fell asleep, so there wasn't even opportunity for sex.

And the Leaf wasn't the only place that was crumbling, the rest of the world was too.

In the Hidden Sand, Gaara, the Fifth Kazekage after taking the reins from his missing father, had no teachers, as Pakura, Baki, Chiyo and Ebizo were all dead, and Temari and Kankuro were hardly suited to be instructors in the matters of running a village.

"P-Please, my lord," a woman begged. "The bandits have my children, and they've demanded a ransom I can't pay, and they've already killed my husband-"

"So you don't have the money to pay a bandit's ransom, but you have enough to hire my shinobi?" Gaara asked with a cold voice.

"N-No, my lord, I don't have the money for either. I-I was hoping that I could appeal to your lord, and you would-"

"Would what?" Gaara interrupted with a snappish voice. "Just _hand_ over my shinobi for free in the good faith you're telling the truth, and _hope_ you're not leading them into a trap set by Shin'en to weaken my forces so he can get me like he got my father!? ANBU!"

Gaara's voice cracked as he reached hysterics.

The masked shinobi appeared, down on bended knees.

"Take this woman to the torturer's chambers so they can find out everything she knows!"

The ANBU rose, grabbed the woman, and vanished with her in their grasp before she could even think to escape or beg for mercy.

At Gaara's right, Temari watched this unfold with shattered eyes.

One time, she threw herself into training as hard as she could so that she could one day match Shin'en and avenge her father alongside her brothers. Now, however, seeing what they had become, Gaara and Kankuro, she wished they had never been born. Her youngest brother was a paranoid maniac—who she had managed to ween off killing everyone that came into his office on the slightest suspicion of working with Shin'en. Now he just threw them to the torturers.—and Kankuro was obsessed with making the perfect puppet, regardless of whatever cost, be it money or lives.

Temari didn't know what the little boy she had taught how to do makeup was up to in his private workshop, but considering the…objects…she saw get taken to there, she didn't want to know.

That was just Gaara and Kankuro; never mind the rest of this dust ball village.

There were nights when Temari prayed to the gods to just wipe this place off the earth and end their collective misery.

The Hidden Mist was in a tight bind. After three years, they were certainly back on their feet, with repairs finished in most places and the forces bolstered with new recruits and the unified army of once-loyalists and once-rebels. However, the Hidden Mist, and Mei Terumi, were all collectively (and unfairly) blamed for the scourge that is Shin'en.

Despite all the crucial intel Mei had delivered, and despite the fact that Shin'en was trained in the Cloud, it was she had her village that got saddled with the responsibility of creating the most wanted man in the world, and so that meant a lot of animosity between them and everyone else.

The strict trade restrictions were just the tip of their iceberg, and further down you'd fine their coffers nearly dry due to having to pay for Hidden Leaf repairs and other restitutions, shoddy gear, slim supplies, and devastated land no good for farming.

Without a doubt, the Hidden Mist was the worst of the villages, and the people therein all blamed Shin'en.

It seemed improbable that a whole nation would collectively fault a single person, but it was true. The people of the Land of Water were so bitter and resentful of their circumstances, for being punished for things they had no hand in, that Shin'en served to be the perfect scapegoat for their anger.

The Hidden Cloud was supremely divided on what to think of Shin'en. He had killed their Third Raikage—but the man had gone insane and started killing Hidden Cloud shinobi—but Shin'en had also killed his fair share of shinobi, leaving hundreds of broken families. He had killed Darui, a respected and beloved member of the corps, but he was also basically the adopted son of Yugito, who was in a state of constant morning nowadays, and just wanted everything to go back to normal. She herself held high regard, and so her opinions and wishes were given consideration, as were Killer Bee's, who felt the same.

So, there were Cloud natives that wanted Shin'en's head, and there were Cloud natives that felt for Yugito and Bee and didn't want harm to befall the boy for the former two's sake. That left Ei, the Fourth Raikage, to have to deal with all this conflict.

He was left depressed, because he himself loved Shin'en, just like Yugito and Bee and Darui and Cee once did, and it hurt his heart to have given the bounty years back in the Leaf, and enforce the law that said any information needed to be brought forth, and that Shin'en was a traitor to be killed on sight.

Other than the increased training regimens implemented to make sure the Leaf didn't outstrip them, the Cloud was more or less the same.

The Hidden Stone watched from their corner of the world, all of them supremely unaffected by Shin'en in any way, but they were still called upon by the world leaders to do their part in hunting the boy down to either kill him or subdue him for trial, so he could be formally killed. The animosity present in the Stone stemmed purely from all the aches and pains they got from the increased training Ohnoki put them through.

So, to summarize:

Hinata is abusive and has anger issues.

Shino is psychotic.

Kiba is feral and insane.

Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji are the heads of their clans, and closet psychopaths.

Sakura is a cold bitch.

Itachi is bitter and resentful.

Sasuke is a man whore with children he doesn't care for with women whose names he doesn't know.

Kushina is depressed and alone.

Minato is a neglectful workaholic.

Menma's probably gay with Konohamaru, and hardly sees his mother.

Gaara is a paranoid nutcase.

Temari is suicidal.

Kankuro has ostracized himself.

The Leaf Village has been overly militarized and is in a dystopian state.

The Hidden Mist remains on shaky ground and drowns in hatred at their unfair circumstances.

The Hidden Sand is falling apart under their Kazekage's rule.

The Hidden Cloud was divided over what to do with Shin'en.

And the Hidden Stone was meh to it all, as they had no reason to hate on Shin'en.

There was only one character is this story that didn't get covered in detail…

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jiraiya went trudging into the Hidden Leaf, and was only slightly annoyed when the gate guards stopped him and performed a full-body search despite him being the most easily recognized Leaf shinobi. After that, he went trudging through the village in a stupor, his eyes downcast and unfocused.

Eventually he found himself inside the lobby to the Hokage Tower, and experienced another round of slight annoyance when the secretary stopped him from going up the stairs until the Hokage called for him. It was an hour before Minato gave the go-ahead, even though the person calling was his sensei and godfather to his child.

The super pervert was bade entrance, and he was greeted with this:

"Sannin Jiraiya. You're four months late with Genin Namikaze."

That was nearly enough for the Sage to come out of his funk and slap the shit out of Minato, but right now Jiraiya's brain and body weren't functioning at full capacity.

"I know," he said quietly. "I'm sorry."

Minato raised a brow. "Sorry does not cut it, Sannin Jiraiya. You took one of my shinobi on a two and a half year training trip that started in October of 1013, meaning you should have been back in April of 1016. It's August. Where is my shinobi?"

That also nearly reignited Jiraiya's fire, but he was so depressed that it didn't.

The Sannin reached inside his robes and produced a small scroll. He handed it to Minato, who unfurled it and read it aloud.

" _You've taught me all that you could. I have to leave you now to learn the things you can't teach me. Don't bother looking for me, I know Sage Mode too and I'm a lot faster than you are. Tell Dad I'll be back no later than my seventeenth birthday._

 _Love you, Naruko."_

The office was quiet for a long while, the ticking of the clock sounding like the claps of thunder. Minato held the scroll in front of his face, so Jiraiya couldn't see the man's facial expression, and the Sannin was getting nervous.

Then, the Yellow Flash put the scroll down, pulled out his own little scroll and brush/ink pot, scribbled some stuff down, and called for an ANBU who appeared out of somewhere. Minato handed the scroll over.

"Take this to the Bingo Office."

"What?" Jiraiya balked, now coming back to himself. "The Bingo Office?"

The ANBU vanished.

"Yes, the Bingo Office," Minato said. "Genin Namikaze has declared herself AWOL and is officially a missing nin. She is also the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki and is too important an asset to allow her to simply roam free about the world. She needs to be brought back and reminded of her role in the village."

He said all this as if explaining the water cycle to an invalid for the tenth time: impatient yet maintaining calm.

After that spiel, _now_ Jiraiya was back on his feet.

"Genin Namikaze?" he said disbelievingly. "AWOL? Missing nin? _Asset_? _Her role_? Minato, what are you-"

"You will refer to me as Lord Hokage," Minato said with hard eyes. "And I'd watch your tone; you're speaking to your superior officer."

Now Jiraiya was pissed off. "Superior off-I am your _sensei,_ _**boy**_ , and that hasn't changed just because you're Hokage now. _You_ will watch _your_ tone when speaking to your fucking teacher."

Minato's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly, and that was the only indication of how incensed he was. Then he was all smiles.

"Actually, sensei, your arrival is most opportune. I have a list of missions here and I've ran into some trouble finding the right man to do them, but I think you're absolutely perfect for them."

Minato handed Jiraiya a scroll, and the Sannin unfurled it and read the details therein.

"Of course, since this is a _direct order_ from your Hokage, refusal to accept these missions will be seen as insubordination, and disciplinary measures will be taken."

Jiraiya rolled the scroll up and put it in his robes. "Am I dismissed, _sir_?"

"You are, Sannin Jiraiya. Report to me when you're done."

And that was how the super pervert ended up changing the adult diapers of the mentally impaired at the hospital.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At the edge of the world was a landscape that looked to have been the battleground for gods. There were craters, artificial mountains and valleys, trails of smoke curling into the air, fake swamps, miles of ruined forest, and devastation all around.

There was a crudely erected house in this landscape, home to ten of the most powerful beings to walk the current earth, and approaching this house was a woman. Once upon a time, she wore nothing but the brightest of oranges, because that was her absolute favorite color. Now, however, with puberty having set in, and her body growing and maturing, her iconic jumpsuit no longer applied, and so she went with a new outfit.

But it was covered by a simple travelling cloak with a hood.

As the woman approached the crude house, she happened upon its ten inhabitants, all of them monsters in their own right, all of them wearing the same garb of a black cloak with red clouds.

The young woman removed her hood and revealed her face, eliciting a myriad of reactions. However, the only reaction that mattered was the one of the green-eyed young man. He looked at her and she at him.

"Why are you here, Naruko?"

The Jinchuuriki responded:

"To learn."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _ **Thus ends the prologue for**_ **Backup Plan: Armageddon** _ **.**_

 _ **As you can see, the world is quite different from canon, and now Shin'en is helping 'Madara' with Project Tsuki no Me, as he views it a better alternative to simply killing the whole of the human race.**_

 _ **Persephone would be proud.**_

 _ **I end it here on chapter 54 because if you add five and four, you get nine. Naruko is the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails. Naruko is important to the story. So, Illuminati confirmed.**_

 _ **I must also apologize, because the next story won't be out for quite a while, as I will now be turning my attention to my novel, and will then return to finish the clusterfuck I made out of**_ **Green-Eyed Ghoul** _ **, and then will probably finish the Lightning Thief arc of**_ **Roanapur's Sea Devil** _ **, and after that, probably finish the Odyssey part of**_ **Assassin's Creed: Transcendence** _ **.**_

 _ **So it'll be a while before**_ **Armageddon** _ **comes out. I rather like the title myself, took me an hour to come up with it.**_

 _ **Since this is the last chapter, I call upon the lurkers and everyone that has been following since Chapter 1 to leave a final Review.**_

 _ **Your thoughts and feelings, your critiques, what you liked, disliked, what you wished happen, what you're hoping for in the next story, etc.**_

 _ **You know, last words kind of stuff.**_

 _ **Thanks for all the love and support in the past year, and I'll see you all next chapter!**_

 _ **Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


End file.
